Kerry's Ceasefire Efforts Fail, Israel Rejects Truce as Gaza Death Toll Hits 848
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday no ceasefire deal had been reached yet in the conflict in Gaza as he and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged a seven-day halt in fighting, which has killed 848 Palestinians in 18 days.
Kerry, who has been leading international efforts to reach a truce, said at a press conference in Cairo with Ban that both sides "still have some terminology" to agree to on a ceasefire, but added they had "fundamental framework" on a truce.
Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said "both sides have not shown till now enough willingness to negotiate."
Shoukri also called for a seven day humanitarian truce in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Hamas politburo member Ezzat al-Rashaq said his movement was assessing the proposal for the 7-day ceasefire.
Kerry said he had not submitted any formal truce proposal.
"They may have rejected some language in the proposal within the framework ... but there was no formal proposal submitted from me," he said.
The top U.S. diplomat added that he will travel to Paris on Saturday for talks with the foreign ministers of Qatar and Turkey, primary supporters of Hamas, and top British and French diplomats.
Israeli fire on Gaza killed a pregnant woman and a senior Islamic Jihad figure Friday, as the Palestinian death toll from 18 days of violence reached 848, emergency services said.
Surgeons saved the life of the 23-year-old woman's unborn child after the air strike hit a house in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
Another air raid killed a senior spokesman for Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group in Gaza after Hamas, which dominates the territory.
Salah Hasanein's sons, 12 and 15, were also killed in the strike in the southern city of Rafah, Qudra said.
Islamic Jihad confirmed the deaths.
The strikes took the Palestinian death toll in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive on July 8 to 848.
Rockets and mortar rounds fired into Israel have killed three civilians -- two Israelis and a Thai farm worker -- and fighting in and around Gaza has killed 35 Israeli soldiers.
It is the bloodiest conflict around the blockaded Palestinian territory since 2008-9.
Human rights watchdogs say that some 80 percent of the Palestinian dead have been civilians, many of them women or children.
The Israeli army said an Israeli soldier was killed Friday by fire from a building near a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip, bringing the number of military deaths to 35 since July 8.
"Militants fired mortars and anti-tank missiles from a structure near an UNRWA school in the central Gaza Strip," killing one Israeli soldier and wounding several others, the army said in a statement.
The dead soldier was named as Staff Sergeant Guy Levy, 21, from Kfar Vradim, who served in the armored corps.
During the day, 14 soldiers were slightly injured, the army said.
The death comes a day after another attack on a U.N. school in Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The school was being used as a shelter for Palestinian civilians fleeing the Israeli bombardment, and left 15 dead after an Israeli shell crashed into the middle of the courtyard.
In the evening, Israel rejected a ceasefire proposal presented by Kerry, Israeli public television reported.
"The security cabinet has unanimously rejected the ceasefire proposal of Kerry, as it stands," Channel 1 said, adding that ministers would continue discussing it.
Israeli media reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government demanded the army be allowed to continue destroying tunnels used by the Palestinian group Hamas to carry out attacks inside Israel.
Kerry's proposal reportedly involved an initial truce to be followed by negotiations on a final deal by delegations from all the parties.
Hamas, the main power in Gaza, previously rejected an initial ceasefire proposal, demanding a full settlement before it stopped shooting, but international mediation efforts have gathered pace in the past few days.
Kerry, who spent another night in Cairo reaching out by telephone to regional officials, met Ban and Egyptian FM Shoukri for around half an hour.
He later went into a one-on-one meeting with Ban, who has also been shuttling around the region.
Meanwhile Hamas claimed it had fired three rockets at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport, with an army spokeswoman confirming "two rockets were shot down over metropolitan Tel Aviv."
The claim raised new fears after many U.S. and European carriers resumed flights to the airport after rocket fire near the facility prompted a two-day suspension.
In a statement released by his office, Ban called for "an immediate, unconditional humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza and Israel."
"This pause would last through the Eid al-Fitr holiday period," Ban said, adding that a halt in the fighting could lead to a "longer-term ceasefire plan."
Ban's remarks were contained in a speech emailed to reporters, but which the U.N. said later was a draft of prepared remarks that had "not been delivered."
His comments tracked reports from Western and Palestinian officials of efforts to secure an initial week-long humanitarian ceasefire to be followed by negotiations on a longer-term cessation of hostilities.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu flew to Qatar Friday to help efforts after Kerry reached out to Hamas allies Ankara and Doha to push for a ceasefire.
Under the proposal, once a humanitarian lull takes hold, delegations from Israel and Hamas will arrive in Cairo -- which has mediated past conflicts between the two -- for indirect talks that could lead to a lasting deal.
Hamas' exiled Doha-based leader Khaled Meshaal insisted in a Thursday interview with the BBC that any truce must include a guaranteed end to Israel's eight-year blockade of Gaza.
"We want a ceasefire as soon as possible, that's parallel with the lifting of the siege of Gaza," he said.
The Israeli army earlier on Friday announced the death of a 36-year-old reserve soldier.
It also confirmed the death of Oron Shaul, who had been missing in action since July 20 but ruled dead.
The army said militants fired 25 rockets which hit southern Israel with another 10 intercepted, bringing the number of rockets and mortar rounds from Gaza that hit Israel since July 8 to 1,870, with another 473 intercepted.
Source: Agence France Presse
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