CAIRO: President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said on Saturday an Egyptian truce plan provides a “real chance” to end the Gaza conflict, stressing the need for its speedy implementation.

“The Egyptian proposal is the real chance to find a solution to the crisis in Gaza and to end the bloodshed,” Sisi told a joint news conference with visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

“Time is decisive, we have to take advantage of it quickly to douse the fire in the (Gaza) Strip... and to stop the bloodshed of Palestinians.”

A Palestinian delegation is expected in Cairo on Saturday to discuss a truce, a day after a temporary cease-fire collapsed with Israel and Hamas blaming each other. But the chances of a new truce seemed remote after Israel said it believed militants captured Second Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, in an attack near the southern Gaza city of

Rafah that killed two other soldiers.

In the violence that ensued, at least 107 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, including 35 since midnight, officials said.

Since the conflict broke out on July 8, a total of about 1,650 Palestinians have been killed in the violence, the vast majority of them civilians, Qudra said. On the Israeli side, 63 soldiers and three civilians have died.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, a member of Israel’s security cabinet which met till the early hours of Saturday, accused Hamas of being behind the soldier’s disappearance and said the group would pay a high price.

US President Barack Obama called for the soldier to be “unconditionally” released, but also said more must be done to protect Gaza civilians.

But Hamas’ armed wing denied any knowledge about the fate of the missing soldier.

“The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades has no information on this soldier. We have lost contact with one of our combatant groups, which was fighting in the sector where the soldier went missing and it is possible that our fighters and this soldier were killed,” it said.

On Saturday, AFP correspondents said Israeli aerial strikes targeted a mosque at Jebaliya, in northern Gaza, and flattened houses in a beachside neighborhood.

In Israel, the Iron Dome air defense system intercepted two rockets fired from Gaza over the Tel Aviv area and another over the southern city of Beersheba, the army said.

The Qassam Brigades said they had fired three rockets at Tel Aviv.

Between Egypt and Hamas

When the latest Gaza war erupted last month, Egypt — the traditional broker in such conflicts — cobbled together a cease-fire proposal, quickly backed by Israel, Arab governments, the United States and the United Nations, but brushed off by Hamas.

Hamas accused Egypt of co-ordinating with Israel and bypassing the Palestinian movement when offering the cease-fire proposal.

Sisi, who last year ousted his Islamist predecessor, Muhammad Mursi, had moved to further isolate Hamas, a close ally of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood has faced a brutal police crackdown since Mursi’s overthrow last year.

On Saturday, Sisi insisted that the Egyptian proposal could be the basis to launch negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

“It is the third time that there is Palestinian bloodshed,” Sisi said, referring to earlier conflicts in 2008 and 2012.

“We should take advantage of the difficult circumstances... and we have a real chance to put an end to the current crisis and build on it a comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause.”

Italian Prime Minister Renzi gave his backing to the Egyptian initiative and called for the release of an Israeli soldier said to have been captured by Hamas.

“I join my voice to the voices of European ministers in calling for the release of the captured Israeli soldier,” Renzi said.