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Israel-Gaza conflict: John Kerry flies to Middle East to urge ceasefire
Israel-Gaza conflict: John Kerry flies to Middle East to urge ceasefire as crisis deepens
(about 1 hour later)
US Secretary of State John Kerry is making a renewed push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas with another trip to the region where the toll of death and destruction is rising.
The US Secretary of State John Kerry has flown out to the Middle East after Sunday saw the deaths of two Americans among the 13 Israeli soldiers and more than 100 Palestinians killed in the deadliest day of the conflict so far.
Kerry was leaving early on Monday for Egypt, where he will join diplomatic efforts to resume a truce that had been agreed in November 2012.
Last night the UN Security Council held an emergency closed-door meeting to discuss the worsening crisis, where members expressed alarm at the rapid escalation of violence and rising death toll in Gaza.
The Obama administration, including Kerry, is sharpening its criticism of Hamas for its rocket attacks on Israel and other provocative acts like tunneling under the border. And the administration is toning down an earlier rebuke of Israel for its attacks on the Gaza Strip that have killed dozens of civilians, including children.
This morning Palestinian health officials said its recorded number of dead had passed 500 for the first time, after 20 more bodies were pulled from the rubble of a single flattened home in the city of Khan Younis.
In a statement on Sunday evening, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the US and international partners "deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation, and the loss of more innocent life."
In total there have been 20 Israeli deaths, including two civilians killed by cross-border shelling.
Both President Barack Obama and Kerry expressed concern about the rising death toll.
On Sunday night, the US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki confirmed the identities of two Americans killed while fighting for the Israeli Defence Forces.
Obama, in a telephone call on Sunday, told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Kerry was going to the Middle East and condemned Hamas' attacks, according to a White House statement.
Max Steinberg, 24, was described by his family in California as a sharpshooter for the Golani Brigade of the Israeli infantry. Nissim Carmeli, 21, was a sergeant from Texas who moved to Israel four years ago.
The US will urge the militant Palestinian group to accept a ceasefire agreement offered by Egypt that would halt nearly two weeks of fighting with Israel. More than 430 Palestinians and 20 Israelis have been killed in that time.
Ms Psaki said that both President Barack Obama and Mr Kerry joined the UN in calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Two Americans who fought for the Israel Defense Forces were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip — Max Steinberg, 24 of California and Nissim Carmeli of Texas. The State Department's Psaki confirmed the names of the two US citizens Sunday night.
She said the US and its international partners were “deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation and the loss of more innocent life”.
A Palestinian man works inside a smuggling tunnel beneath the Gaza-Egypt border, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, last year Cairo's ceasefire plan is backed by the US and Israel. But Hamas has rejected the Egyptian plan and is relying on governments in Qatar and Turkey for an alternative proposal. Qatar and Turkey have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is also linked to Hamas but banned in Egypt.
A Palestinian man works inside a smuggling tunnel beneath the Gaza-Egypt border, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, last year Mr Obama spoke to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a phone call on Sunday to discuss plans for Mr Kerry’s arrival in Cairo, the White House said. It added that the US condemned Hamas’s continued firing of rockets into Israel.
Making the rounds of Sunday talk shows, Kerry said Hamas needs to recognise its own responsibility for the conflict.
But while discussions for a ceasefire in Egypt have been firmly backed by the US and Israel, Palestinians have turned to Qatar and Turkey to put forward an alternative proposal. There is distrust in Gaza of the leadership in Cairo after it ousted the pro-Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood-led government last year.
"It's ugly. War is ugly, and bad things are going to happen," Kerry told ABC.
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had already been due to travel the region this week to try to revive ceasefire efforts, and described yesterday’s shelling of the Shijaiyah district in Gaza City as “an atrocious action”.
An Israeli rocket is fired into northern Gaza strip (REUTERS) Both Obama and Kerry said Israel has a right to defend itself against frequent rocket attacks by Hamas from the Gaza Strip. Kerry accused Hamas of attempting to sedate and kidnap Israelis through a network of tunnels that militants have used to stage cross-border raids.
An Israeli rocket is fired into northern Gaza strip (REUTERS) The UN relief agency in Gaza estimates that 70,000 Palestinians have fled their homes in the fighting and are seeking shelter in schools and other shelters set up by the UN.
He said on CNN that Hamas must "step up and show a level of reasonableness, and they need to accept the offer of a ceasefire."
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called it a “massacre” and said the Israeli offensive involving tanks, infantry units, missiles from the air and sea and the reported use of flechette shells as a “crime against humanity”.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon was already in the region to try to revive ceasefire efforts.
Banjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas doesn't "give a whit about the Palestinians" (AP) The Israeli military said it targeted Shijaiyah to combat what it described as a Hamas stronghold, and to destroy a network of tunnels leading to Israel that have become “like the Underground”.
The UN relief agency in Gaza estimates that 70,000 Palestinians have fled their homes in the fighting and are seeking shelter in schools and other shelters the United Nations has set up.
Speaking in a broadcast on Israeli national TV on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said the goal was to “restore a sustainable quiet” and ultimately “demilitarise Gaza”.
Banjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas doesn't "give a whit about the Palestinians" (AP) US officials said Hamas could bring relief to the Palestinian people if it agrees to a ceasefire proposed by Egypt — a view that Netanyahu is pushing as well.
He said the offensive would continue “as long as necessary” to end rocket attacks from Gaza.
Netanyahu said in an ABC interview that Israel has tried to avoid killing Palestinian civilians by making phone calls, sending text messages and dropping leaflets on their communities. But Hamas doesn't "give a whit about the Palestinians," Netanyahu said. "All they want is more and more civilian deaths."
The prime minister said his top goal is to restore a sustainable peace, but then will ask the international community to consider demilitarising Gaza to rid Hamas of its rockets and shut down the tunnels leading into Israel.
