Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed on Tuesday on a mechanism that will allow the UN to monitor the export of building supplies into Gaza.

The deal was announced by the UN's representative in the region, Robert Serry. Under its terms, the Palestinians will be allowed to begin rebuilding the thousands of homes and public buildings destroyed during the conflict.

Monitoring procedures are in place to prevent the supplies from being used to build new tunnels, bunkers and missile launchers.

Meanwhile, it is still unclear whether the talks in Cairo between Israel and a joint delegation of the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, will resume next week. Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said: "We are not waiting, the crossings into Gaza are open and we have widened the fishing areas."

Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said on Wednesday that his organisation was not planning to renew rocket attacks.