A senior Hamas official predicted a ceasefire within days, after US President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a “de-escalation” in the violence.

Rocket fire into Israel died down overnight, a lull that stretched into Thursday morning. Israel was launching new air strikes in Gaza after daybreak, but, Israeli media said, at a slower pace than in past days.

An Egyptian security source said the sides had agreed in principle to a ceasefire after help from mediators but details were still being negotiated in secret.

“I think that the ongoing efforts regarding the ceasefire will succeed,” the Hamas political official, Moussa Abu Marzouk, told Lebanon's al-Mayadeen TV.

“I expect a ceasefire to be reached within a day or two, and the ceasefire will be on the basis of mutual agreement.”

Asked on Israel's Kan public radio if a ceasefire would begin on Friday, Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said: “No. We are definitely seeing very significant international pressure [...] we will finish the operation when we decide we have attained our goals.”

Netanyahu, who spoke to Biden by telephone on Wednesday, has said Israel wants to achieve “forceful deterrence” to dissuade Gaza's ruling Hamas from future confrontation.

Read: Israel’s latest aggression is a continuation of a long war on the Palestinians

Qatar-based Al Jazeera television reported that UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland was meeting Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar.

Israel carried out over a dozen air strikes on Gaza after midnight, targeting what it said was a weapons storage unit in the Gaza City home of a Hamas official, and military infrastructure in the homes of other commanders from the group.

Medics said four people were wounded in one attack on the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Rocket sirens blared just after midnight in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba and in areas bordering Gaza, with no reports of casualties or damage. The workday began on Thursday with no alerts.

Since the fighting began on May 10, Palestinian health officials say 228 people have been killed, including dozens of children, in aerial bombardments by Israel that have worsened Gaza's already dire humanitarian situation.

Israeli authorities put the death toll to date at 12 in Israel, where repeated rocket attacks have caused panic and sent people rushing into shelters.

Biden seeks 'significant de-escalation'

Netanyahu has repeatedly hailed what he has described as support from the United States, Israel's main ally, for a right to self-defence in battling attacks from Gaza, home to two million Palestinians.

But Biden put the Israeli leader on notice in a telephone call that it was time to lower the intensity of the conflict.

“The president conveyed to the prime minister that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday.

Washington and several Middle East capitals have sought an end to the violence through diplomacy. The 193-member United Nations General Assembly was due to meet on the conflict on Thursday with the participation of several foreign ministers but it was not expected to take action.

Read: Qureshi urges global action to end Israeli assault on Palestine ahead of UNGA session

The US mission said it would not support a French push for a resolution in the 15-member UN Security Council, saying it believed such actions would “undermine efforts to de-escalate” violence.

Hamas began firing rockets on May 10 in retaliation following Israeli rights abuses against Palestinians in Jerusalem during the month of Ramazan.

The rocket attacks followed Israeli police brutalising worshippers at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and a court case by Israeli settlers to evict Palestinians from a neighbourhood in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Israeli military then immediately began a disproportionate campaign of air bombardment on Gaza, demolishing dozens of apartment buildings, including those housing offices of media companies, and killing over 200 Palestinians since then.

The Israeli assault on the Palestinians is the most serious in years, and has fueled street violence in Israeli cities between Jews and Arabs.

It has also spilled over to the Israel-Lebanon frontier and stoked violence in the occupied West Bank.

Four rockets were launched towards Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday, the third such incident since the Gaza conflict began, the military said. There was no claim of responsibility.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian woman who the military said had fired a rifle at troops and civilians.

At least 21 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops or other incidents in the West Bank since May 10, Palestinian officials said.