Fighting has broken out with renewed ferocity as Israeli forces bombard the town of Rafah in response to the apparent capture of one of its soldiers by Hamas, after an internationally brokered ceasefire in Gaza collapsed almost immediately on Friday.

Peace talks that had been planned in Cairo to take advantage of the truce stalled before they began, as the threat of a new escalation loomed, possibly involving an Israeli ground assault on Rafah in search of Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin. His fate was unclear as Hamas issued conflicting statements about whether it had captured him.

The US backed Israeli accounts that Hamas had taken advantage of the 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire to ambush Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers near the entrance to a tunnel outside Rafah, on the southern end of the Gaza Strip on the Egyptian border, killing two soldiers at the same time as seizing Goldin.

The White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the attack "a rather barbaric violation of the ceasefire agreement" and urged countries with influence over Hamas to push them back to observing the truce.