Israeli soldiers walk Friday at a military staging area in southern Israel. The Israeli military has been operating in northern Gaza for months in an attempt to eradicate Palestinian rocket squads, so far without success. This week, after the death of the second Israeli civilian in a week from Palestinian rockets, the government ordered the army to step up its operations in Gaza.

Jebalya, Gaza Strip ? The Palestinian prime minister said Friday that militants were prepared to stop firing rockets at Israel if it would halt all military action in Palestinian territories. Israel rejected the offer, saying it would respond positively only to a total truce.

Similar proposals in the past have failed to curb fighting, and a spokesman for the ruling Hamas group quickly stepped back from the cease-fire talk, which came as fighting between militants and Israeli troops in Gaza claimed the lives of a 10-year-old Palestinian boy and a militant filming the clashes.

A third Palestinian died Friday of wounds suffered in earlier violence. It wasn’t immediately known whether he was a militant or civilian.

Israeli launched a military campaign in Gaza five months ago, in an unsuccessful attempt to curb militant rocket fire on Israeli border communities.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said armed factions had agreed Thursday to halt rocket fire in exchange for a complete cessation of Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

After meeting with faction leaders again Friday night, Haniyeh urged the Israelis “to respect this positive readiness expressed by the Palestinian resistance factions.” And government spokesman Ghazi Hamad suggested that a broader cease-fire was possible if Israel were to take up the militants’ offer.

Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the offer to trade a partial cease-fire for a suspension of all Israeli military operations in Palestinian territories was “ludicrous” and “a media stunt.”

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Ismail Radwan, watered down Haniyeh’s talk of a cease-fire, saying the Palestinian factions had agreed to “alter their strategies of resistance” if Israel halted fire.

The Palestinian rocket fire, which over the years has generated more panic and anxiety than casualties, grew deadlier during the last week, claiming the lives of two Israeli civilians.