Gaza City (CNN) -- Rockets from Gaza hit Israel early Friday morning, breaching a cease-fire that had held for more than two days, the Israeli military said.
'Moments ago, 2 rockets fired from Gaza hit southern Israel. Terrorists have violated the cease-fire,' the Israel Defense Forces wrote on Twitter.
It wasn't immediately clear how Israel would respond. The IDF pulled its ground forces out of Gaza on Tuesday but said they were maintaining 'defensive positions' around the territory.
A Palestinian man looks out over destruction in the al-Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza, on Wednesday, August 6, as a fragile 72-hour cease-fire between Israel and Hamas entered its second day. Israel launched a ground operation in Gaza on July 17 after a 10-day campaign of airstrikes had failed to halt relentless Hamas rocket fire on Israeli cities.Photos: Israel-Gaza crisis Will Hamas extend 72-hour cease-fire?'I suspect the Israelis are going to wait to see if it was just these two rockets,' said CNN's Wolf Blitzer. 'These could be isolated rockets.'
But if more rockets are fired from Gaza, 'the Israelis will strike back,' Blitzer said.
The two rockets landed near Eshkol in southern Israel but didn't cause any damage or casualties, the Israeli military said. It wasn't immediately clear who in Gaza, where multiple militant factions are active, launched them.
Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, denies firing the rockets, said Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the group. The allegations 'are based on Israeli reports aimed at confusing the situation,' the Gaza-based spokesman said.
Talks in CairoEarlier, negotiators in Cairo had been scrambling to extend the Gaza cease-fire, which was set to expire at 8 a.m. Friday (1 a.m. ET). A Hamas official had told supporters in Gaza City that the group was ready to resume fighting if it didn't win key concessions in the talks.
'We are ready to return to the battle if the Palestinian demands are not met in Cairo,' Hamas spokesman Mosher al-Masry told a crowd of supporters waving the group's green flags.
Map: Middle East region
Map: Middle East region Official: Israel won't break cease-fire Rabbi: 'Israel has broken my heart'A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, was even more pointed.
'We demand from the negotiating team to pull out from negotiations if the enemy continues to be stubborn; we are ready for a long war,' Abu Obaida said on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television.
'We demand that the negotiating team not extend negotiations without the agreement on a seaport,' he said, demanding that the blockade against Gaza be lifted, and all the crossings into Egypt and Israel be opened.
'We will not accept anything less,' the spokesman said. 'We will make the tanks of the enemy a toy in the hands of the children of Gaza.'
As the spokesman suggested, Hamas wants Israel to end border restrictions that limit the flow of people and goods into and out of Gaza. Israel wants Hamas to give up its weapons.
Israel is willing to extend the truce unconditionally, Dore Gold, a senior foreign policy adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN on Thursday.
Earlier, in a heated interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on 'New Day,' Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said if the cease-fire was to hold, Israel must show signs of willingness to reach a broader deal before the truce expires.
'There is no decision to undermine the talks, there is no decision to go back to fight,' he said. 'But we have to evaluate what the Israelis are doing, what the Israelis are saying.'
Officials from Israel and the Palestinian side -- including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Palestine Liberation Organization -- are communicating through Egyptian intermediaries in an effort to reach agreement on extending the truce.
Israeli concerns over portObama supports Israel, slams Hamas Rafah families rush to bury dead What's the next step in Gaza?The warring sides' aims are far apart.
Israel says Hamas must disarm as part of any larger deal that might lead to the end of border restrictions and greater economic freedom for Gaza residents.
Hamas, meanwhile, says the blockade must end before a lasting peace deal can be reached. Israel must also stop activities in response to the kidnapping of three Israeli teens who were later found dead and facilitate reconstruction of the territory's devastated infrastructure, Hamdan told CNN.
'We can't talk about future while the Israelis are putting a pistol to our heads or a knife to our necks,' he said.
Gold told 'New Day' that the border restrictions and Gaza's economic and redevelopment needs can't be separated because they are 'intimately linked.'
'If you want cement for building homes or schools, you've got to make sure the cement goes there and not rebuilding attack tunnels that go into Israel,' he said.
He also said Hamas' demands for a Mediterranean Sea port raise serious security concerns for Israel.
'We're of course concerned if something like that occurs, that the Iranians or others will bring missile boats into the Mediterranean and to that Gaza port,' Gold said. 'So it's not so simple as to say, 'Give them a port.' '
Latest death tollOn Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health issued new casualty numbers for the conflict -- 1,888 deaths, including 446 children, and 9,804 injured.
It's unclear how many of the Palestinian dead were militants.
The United Nations has estimated that at least 70% of the dead were civilians. The Israel Defense Forces believes it killed about 900 militants -- roughly half of the dead.
Israeli officials have said 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians in Israel died.
Additionally, about 65,000 Gaza residents lost their homes to the fighting, according to U.N. estimates.
CNN exclusive: Inside the mind of Hamas' political leaderNobel laureate Wiesel: Hamas must stop using children as human shieldsGaza conflict: Can economic isolation ever be reversed?Life in Gaza: Misery heightened by warCNN's John Vause reported from Gaza, Michael Pearson reported and wrote from Atlanta, Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Reza Sayah, Jake Tapper, Dana Ford, Katie Hinman, Claudia Rebaza, Samira Said and Karl Penhaul also contributed to this report.
Entities 0 Name: Gaza Count: 20 1 Name: Israel Count: 20 2 Name: Hamas Count: 16 3 Name: Israeli Count: 7 4 Name: CNN Count: 7 5 Name: Gaza City Count: 3 6 Name: Cairo Count: 3 7 Name: Palestinian Count: 2 8 Name: Middle East Count: 2 9 Name: Israel Defense Forces Count: 2 10 Name: Palestinian Ministry of Health Count: 1 11 Name: Sami Abu Zuhri Count: 1 12 Name: John Vause Count: 1 13 Name: Dana Ford Count: 1 14 Name: IDF Count: 1 15 Name: Israel-Gaza Count: 1 16 Name: United Nations Count: 1 17 Name: Hamdan Count: 1 18 Name: Osama Hamdan Count: 1 19 Name: Al-Aqsa Count: 1 20 Name: Reza Sayah Count: 1 21 Name: Blitzer Count: 1 22 Name: Hamas Rafah Count: 1 23 Name: Jethro Mullen Count: 1 24 Name: Atlanta Count: 1 25 Name: Hong Kong Count: 1 26 Name: Obama Count: 1 27 Name: Dore Gold Count: 1 28 Name: Abu Obaida Count: 1 29 Name: Mosher al-Masry Count: 1 30 Name: Chris Cuomo Count: 1 31 Name: Katie Hinman Count: 1 32 Name: Jake Tapper Count: 1 33 Name: Karl Penhaul Count: 1 34 Name: Al-Qassam Brigades Count: 1 35 Name: Eshkol Count: 1 36 Name: Benjamin Netanyahu Count: 1 37 Name: Claudia Rebaza Count: 1 38 Name: Palestine Liberation Organization Count: 1 39 Name: al-Tufah Count: 1 40 Name: Samira Said Count: 1 41 Name: Egypt Count: 1 42 Name: Mediterranean Count: 1 43 Name: Mediterranean Sea Count: 1 44 Name: U.N. Count: 1 45 Name: Wolf Blitzer Count: 1 46 Name: Michael Pearson Count: 1 47 Name: Islamic Jihad Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1zWQA9o Title: LIVE UPDATES: Mortars fired at Israel, hours before end of cease-fire - Diplomacy and Defense Description: 14 A temporary cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza entered its third and final day on Thursday, as delegations from both sides continued to negotiate a more permanent truce in Cairo.