Egypt told the Islamic Jihad today it is delaying talks on a long-term Gaza ceasefire, the Palestinian militant group said, after Israel revealed one of its soldiers may have been captured.
"The Egyptians contacted the Islamic Jihad and said Israel told them that a soldier has been captured," the group's deputy leader Ziad al-Nakhale said. "The talks have been postponed."
An Israeli army spokesman said an initial 72-hour truce that began this morning was over after the suspected abduction of a soldier "in an incident where terrorists breached the ceasefire".
But Hamas's deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzuq said "any operation was conducted before the ceasefire started".
He said that any announcement of a soldier's capture must come from the group's military wing in Gaza, but he did not deny that Hamas militants abducted the soldier.
Abu Marzuq said Hamas was still prepared to abide by the 72-hour truce if Israel was willing to do so.
US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns had been among the diplomats expected to travel to Egypt to take part in talks aimed at agreeing on a durable truce to follow the 72-hour ceasefir that collapsed soon after it began today.
