Top officials from Turkey and Israel have begun new closed-door talks on a deal to normalize ties more than half a decade after relations were downgraded, a report said Thursday.

Delegations led by powerful Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and Joseph Ciechanover, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli National Security Advisor Jacob Nagel started talks in Geneva late on Wednesday, the Turkish NTV television channel reported.

Turkish forces have ended an almost two-month military offensive backed by a curfew against Kurdish rebels in the southeastern town of Cizre, the interior minister said Thursday.

Two suspected people smugglers went on trial in Turkey on Thursday charged with causing the death in September of a Syrian toddler the picture of whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach shocked the world.

The trial of Syrian nationals Muwafaka Alabash and Asem Alfrhad opened at the criminal court in the western Turkish resort of Bodrum, the Dogan news agency reported. If convicted, they face up to 35 years in jail.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Wednesday slammed as "hypocritical" calls by some countries urging Ankara to open its borders to Syrian refugees while failing to demand Russia halts punishing air strikes.

Turkey is under mounting pressure to open its border to people fleeing a Russian-backed assault by the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad in the north of the war-torn country.

Turkey's coastguard said on Wednesday it had rescued a Syrian refugee who clung on alone to a sinking boat for his life after it went down while seeking to cross the Aegean Sea to Greece.

The coastguard released dramatic footage of the incident Monday when Syrian refugee Pelen Hussein was picked up by rescuers off the Turkish port of Edremit in the western Baliksehir region.

One Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in clashes with Kurdish rebels trying to cross the border from Syria into southeast Turkey, the military said Wednesday.

Turkish security forces opened fire Tuesday on seven militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the Cizre district of Sirnak province as they were entering Turkey from Syria, the army said in a statement.

The leader of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party on Tuesday accused Ankara of committing a "massacre" following reports that scores of civilians had been killed in a military operation against Kurdish rebels in a flashpoint town.

Cizre in southeastern Turkey has been under a punishing curfew for six weeks as the army pursues a relentless campaign against rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Around 30,000 Syrians are at the Turkish border after fleeing a Russia-backed regime offensive on the northern region of Aleppo, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

With his country facing mounting pressure to open its border, Davutoglu said the refugees would be admitted if need be, although Turkey should not be expected "to shoulder the refugee issue alone."

Turkey said on Sunday it would not abandon thousands of Syrians stranded on its border after fleeing a major Russian-backed regime offensive, as aid agencies warned of a "desperate" situation.

Tens of thousands of people, including many women and children, have been uprooted as pro-government forces backed by intense Russian anti-rebel air strikes advance near Syria's second city Aleppo.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed anger over a U.S. official's visit to a Kurdish militia group controlling the Syrian town of Kobane, urging Washington to choose between Turkey and the "terrorists" there.

A delegation including senior U.S. diplomat Brett McGurk, special envoy to an international coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq, last week met members of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), a powerful militia that is in control of Kobane.