Egyptian efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza are ongoing, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has said in comments reported by state news agency MENA.

Shoukry was heading to Saudi Arabia to attend a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the situation in Syria, according to a foreign ministry statement.

Before he left, Shoukry told a Saudi Arabian newspaper that the Egyptian ceasefire initiative was widely welcomed and supported by the international community and all Palestinian factions.   

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was on a two-day visit to Egypt for negotiations with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

The two presidents reached an agreement to resume peace talks, according to Abbas at a press conference on Saturday.

The Egyptian government's statements on peace talks come amid continued raids and air strikes against Gaza.

At least 2,105 Palestinians and 68 Israelis, all but four of them soldiers, have been killed since the beginning of Israel's offensive on the coastal enclave on 8 July.

The UN says that among the dead were 478 children.

Around 460,000 people have fled their homes in Gaza -- more than a quarter of the enclave's 1.8 million people.