Israeli and Hamas representatives are set to hold talks in Cairo next week in a bid to find a peaceful resolution to the uneasy truce that ended the 50-day war in Gaza in late August.

Indirect Cairo-brokered talks are slated to resume on October 27, two months after Israel dropped counteroffensive attacks against the militant group that controls the Gaza enclave. It also comes a week after international donors met to raise money for rebuilding war-torn Gaza.

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The negotiations are intended to seek a permanent ceasefire between Israel, Hamas and other militant groups operating in the Gaza Strip.

Kais Abdel Karim, a Palestinian representative to the negotiations, said the talks will resume from where they left off one month ago. Palestinian media reports said the talks next week would focus on the Palestinian demands for Israel to free Hamas prisoners and for the construction of a sea and airport in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

For its part, Israel supports the rebuilding of Gaza as it had on countless occasions, but said it seeks to cut off Hamas from resources it could use to reconstruct its terror infrastructures, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a statement.

Hamas is known to use international aid for building tunnels and manufacturing rockets to use against Israel.

The announcement came as news broke of Hamas claiming to rebuild its underground tunnel network that runs across Gaza and to entry points into the Israeli side of the border, Israeli International News said.

Hamas attacked Israel through the said tunnels - either by sending armed terrorists targeting Israelis or by abducting and murdering Israeli soldiers in it, as in the famous case of Gilad Shalit.

The Israeli Defense Forces reported it had destroyed 34 Gaza tunnels, but failed to destroy all known tunnels.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on August 26, effectively ending Operation Protective Edge which had reduced the Gaza strip to rubble. It left about 2,100 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead.

The international community condemned Israel following the attacks, but Israel insisted the militants used the civilian population as human shields. A gathering of international donors pledged a total of US$5.4 billion for rebuilding Gaza last week, but warned that it was the last time the world would pay for the damages made by warring parties.

Next week's talk between Israel and Hamas is also slated to finalize arrangements for channeling international aid into Gaza. 

TagsIsrael-Hamas, Israel-Hamas talk, Gaza ceasefire, Israel, Hamas, Gaza Strip