Deal still elusive for Gaza cease-fire

FE Team | Published: July 26, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

GAZA CITY, July 25 (Agencie): Efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and the militant Hamas movement are intensifying as the number of deaths in the 18-day conflict rises.
Israeli fire on Gaza killed a pregnant woman and a senior Islamic Jihad figure Friday, taking the Palestinian death toll from 18 days of violence to 815, emergency services said.
Turbulent negotiations to broker a temporary truce in the Gaza Strip are continuing.
US Secretary of State John Kerry met twice Friday in Cairo with UN chief Ban Ki-Moon and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri to try to nail down a deal to bring a week-long pause in the fighting and begin as soon as this weekend.
Kerry presented his proposal for a Gaza cease-fire to Israel and proxies for Hamas Friday, seeking to curtail the violence that is now threatening to spread to the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
Salvos from Israeli tanks and rockets from Hamas fighters continued through the early afternoon Friday as Kerry made a frenetic round of telephone calls to regional players. The Israeli security cabinet was prepared to debate the still-evolving proposal but was waiting for word on Hamas intentions.
Activists called for a "day of rage" over the deaths of 815 Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has lost 35 people.
Most of the Palestinian deaths have been civilians, while 33 of Israel's dead have been soldiers. One Thai worker was also killed by rocket fire in Israel.
Nearly 100 Palestinians were killed on Thursday, one of the bloodiest days of the conflict.
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 32 Israeli soldiers.
It is the bloodiest conflict around the blockaded Palestinian territory since 2008-9.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said Friday it fired three rockets at Tel Aviv airport, a day after US and some European airlines had resumed flights after a two-day suspension.