GAZA CITY: Intensive Israeli shelling killed at least 62 people and wounded more than 350 in southern Gaza on Friday, medics said, as a fragile truce was shattered just hours after beginning.

The deaths brought the total toll from 25 days of conflict to more than 1,500 Palestinians, emergency services spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said.

Reporters said an artillery barrage of the city of Rafah prevented medics from recovering the dead and wounded, after the army said militants had resumed rocket fire against Israel.

A correspondent reported fierce fighting in the Rafah area, and Israel’s army warned residents to stay in their houses as it “pursued terrorist elements.”

Sixty-three Israeli soldiers have been killed in the 25-day offensive, and three civilians inside Israel have died from cross-border rocket or mortar fire.

The truce collapsed only hours after it began Friday amid a deadly new wave of violence and the capture by Hamas of an Israeli soldier.

The cease-fire was short-lived, with Hamas accusing Israel of breaking it.

The military also announced that two soldiers had been killed in the same incident near the southern city of Rafah. An army spokesman said a suicide bomber blew himself up.

Islamic Jihad later said Egypt was postponing the talks after news of the Israeli soldier’s capture, but Cairo said the invitation to talk was “still in place.”

And Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said a joint delegation, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, will travel to Cairo Saturday for talks despite the renewed fighting.

Turkey will do what it can to help free the Israeli soldier, but the priority should be the reinstatement of a truce, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, fearing an escalation of violence, earlier called on Turkey and Qatar to use their influence to secure the release of the soldier.