A Hamas official said Sunday the group's delegation for Gaza truce talks in Cairo was leaving for "consultations" in Qatar after public disagreement with Israel intensified over demands to end its seven-month war on Gaza.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "surrendering" to a demand to end the war would amount to defeat.
Medics and first responders in Gaza said 16 people were killed in Israeli air strikes in the southern city of Rafah Sunday, hours after Hamas rockets had killed three Israeli soldiers earlier in the day.
"The toll of martyrs in Rafah reached 16," emergency first responders told AFP, adding that seven people from one family and nine from another were killed.
Medical sources confirmed two strikes they said took place at two different locations around the city.