UPDATE 1700 GMT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that the Israel Defense Forces are poised to strike if the 72-hour ceasefire is broken.

Netanyahu offers condolences to Gazans killed and injured during Israel’s military operations, but said that Hamas was responsible.

“Israel deeply regrets every civilian casualty, every single one. We do not target them, People of Gaza are not our enemies. Our enemy is Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “90 percent of the fatalities could have been avoided had Hamas not rejected then the ceasefire it accepts now. Hamas needs to be blamed for these deaths, ostracized from the family of nations.”

He then compared Hamas to Al Qa’eda, the Islamic State, and Nigeria’s Boko Haram: “What’s happening now is not only a test for Israel but for the international community, for the civilized world itself, how it defends itself.”

Contradicting his Foreign Minister and the Israeli Ambassador to the US — called Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas a “supporter of terrorism” for his unity government with Hamas — Netanyahu said he is happy to deal with him: “We have cooperated and are cooperating with the PA. We’re prepared to see a role for them [in] the reconstruction Gaza, humanitarian aid, security questions. The ceasefire agreement was coordinated with them.”

With a 72-hour pause in the Gaza War holding so far, talks for a lasting ceasefire are expected to begin on Wednesday in Egypt.

As Israeli ground forces withdrew across the border, some Gazans returned to their homes, finding the destruction of the 29-day conflict and seeking basic supplies.

At least 485,000 Gazans — almost 25% of the population — have been displaced and 1,875 have been killed. More than 9,500 have been wounded.

On the Israeli side, 64 troops were killed in the ground invasion. Two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker were killed by Gazan rockets.

Completing a sharp reversal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an Israeli delegation arrived in Egypt for “indirect” negotiations with a Palestinian team that includes the Gazan leadership of Hamas as well as the Palestinian Authority and Islamic Jihad.

Israel’s negotiators will be led by Netanyahu’s close aide Yitzhak Molcho, high-ranking Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad, and the head of the internal intelligence service Shin Bet, Yoram Cohen.

As late as last weekend, Netanyahu had said he would not send anyone to Egypt and declared that he would pursue the ground and air war until rocket fire ceased.

A six-hour meeting of the Security Cabinet on Tuesday night confirmed the shift in approach by Israel, which officially does not recognize Hamas as a legitimate political organization.

Despite the Cabinet approval, there were signs of discontent from Netanyahu’s ministers. Uzi Landau, the Tourism Minister, said immediately after the meeting that Lebanon’s Hezbollah — whom Israel tried to defeat in a 2006 war — would note that the Israelis did not succeed in bringing Hamas to its knees.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman objected not only to the presence of Hamas in the Cairo talks but also to the participation of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas: “Considering Abu Mazen (Abbas) a partner in Gaza is a grave mistake….(He) might be taking action against Hamas in Gaza, but he is taking action against us in the international arena.”

The Israel Defense Forces said that West Jerusalem’s official objective for the ground invasion had not been achieved: contradicting earlier declarations that all cross-border tunnels had been destroyed, it said “two or three” might remain.

A “senior diplomatic official” insisted that Gaza’s leaders had been weakened by the war: “Hamas is having a difficult time explaining to its supporters why it has accepted the Egyptian initiative (for talks) which it resoundingly rejected three weeks ago.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials tried to add some pressure on the Israelis with an approach to the International Criminal Court for membership.

Acceptance by the ICC would allow the Palestinians to bring war crimes charges against West Jerusalem over the deaths and destruction in the conflict.

“Israel has left us with no other option,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki declared.

(Featured Photo: A displaced Gazan family returns to Beit Hanoun on Tuesday — Marco Longari/AFP/Getty)