Israeli troops and tanks pulled out of a central sector of the Gaza Strip and moved closer to the border today as its military invited Palestinians to return to one of the hardest-hit areas in the coastal strip.

Media reports in Israel suggested the military planned to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza and declare victory in the weeks-long war that Palestinian officials say has killed more than 1,650 people.

Authorities in Israel, which has lost 63 soldiers and three civilians in the war, declined to immediately comment on the reports but the move would mirror Israeli strategy in previous wars in the area.

The Israeli troop movements came as soldiers continued their search for infantry 2nd Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who the military said it believes was grabbed in a Hamas ambush about an hour after an internationally-brokered ceasefire took effect on Friday morning.

The soldier's alleged capture has prompted widespread international condemnation, with US president Barack Obama, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and others accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire and calling for the soldier's immediate release.

The Hamas military wing said on its website that it is "not aware until this moment of a missing soldier or his whereabouts or the circumstances of his disappearance".

The group said the soldier might have been killed in a clash with Hamas fighters about an hour before the start of the ceasefire and that it had lost contact with the fighters.

"We believe all members of this group have died in an (Israeli) strike, including the Zionist soldier the enemy says disappeared," it said.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the statement.

The apparent capture of the soldier has made the prospect of a new ceasefire more distant.

Israeli media reported today that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not send negotiators to Cairo for indirect talks with Hamas and other Palestinian factions. A government official declined to comment on the media reports.

Palestinian delegates comprising representatives of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Hamas and other militant groups were expected in Cairo later today, according to Egyptian security and Cairo airport officials.

Hamas could be withholding information about the soldier in order to extract concessions from Israel, a strategy used in the past by the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which did not disclose whether two Israeli soldiers it seized in 2006 were alive or dead until their remains were handed over in a prisoner exchange.

Another possibility would be that another militant group captured him.

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the humanitarian pause.

At least 35 Palestinians were killed in the bombardment and shelling in and around the city of Rafah early today, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra, adding that the area's main hospital was evacuated because of the strikes, which killed dozens of people on Friday.

At least 70 more were killed on Friday in the Rafah area.

Elsewhere in Gaza, Palestinian officials reported more than 150 airstrikes, including several against mosques and one against the Hamas-linked Islamic University in Gaza City. Heavy shelling continued along the border areas.

The Israeli military said it struck 200 targets over the previous 24 hours.

It said it attacked five mosques that concealed weapons and that the Islamic University was being used as a research and weapons manufacturing site for Hamas.

The Israeli military also informed Beit Lahiya residents that they could return to their homes, but warned them against what it said were "explosives spread across the area by Hamas".

The military did not say whether inviting Beit Lahiya's residents back to their homes meant that hostilities there have ended.

It would only say that there would be a "diminished" level of fighting and targeting in the area.

Israeli troops and tanks also started a gradual redeployment from Khoza'a village east of the town of Khan Younis to the area along the borders with Israel.

"We are afraid to go back, simply because we cannot trust them," Beit Lahiya resident Assad Ghanam said of the Israeli army.

"My uncle and his wife went back to the area to feed their chickens and animals after an earlier ceasefire. They both got killed."

Israel launched an aerial offensive on July 8 to stop unrelenting Gaza rocket fire toward its cities and communities, and later expanded it to a ground offensive mostly aimed at destroying an elaborate Hamas cross-border tunnel network used for attacks inside Israel.

Since fighting began, Gaza militants have fired more than 3,000 rockets into Israel, reaching most major cities and forcing millions to seek cover. Hamas has also infiltrated Israel several times and killed Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli military accused Hamas of flagrantly violating Friday's cease-fire. Hamas insists it was Israel that broke the truce.