Israel extends Gaza ceasefire

The Israeli government agreed on Saturday to extend the 12-hour ceasefire with Hamas until midnight local time, as medics in Gaza sift through the rubble of destroyed buildings, unearthing another 100 bodies.

That pushes the Palestinian death toll to more than 1,000 people since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on July 8. The overwhelming majority of the Palestinian dead have been civilians. Israel has suffered 40 casualties so far - 37 soldiers and three civilians.

Earlier, top diplomats met in Paris where they called on Hamas and Israel to extend the truce in the Gaza Strip, with a view toward broader negotiations aimed at addressing the grievances that sparked the latest round of bloodshed.

"All of us call on the parties to extend the humanitarian ceasefire that is currently underway," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

"All of us want to obtain, as quickly as possible, a durable, negotiated ceasefire that responds to both the Israeli needs in terms of security and to Palestinian needs in terms of the social-economic development and access to the territory of Gaza," Fabius continued.

The French foreign minister's comments came after he met with his counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, the US, Qatar and Turkey. British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said that the "necessity right now is to stop the loss of life."

'Strategic impasse'

But Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official, believes there's currently no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Miller has advised several US secretaries of state on the Arab-Israeli peace process.

"The core problem remains the strategic impasse between a resistance organization, Hamas, determined to retain control over Gaza and its weapons arsenal and that wants to maintain as many advantages over its Palestinian rival as possible," Miller told DW.

Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Mahmoud Abbas, agreed to form a national unity government in April, drawing the ire of Israel. But the two Palestinian factions have long been rivals, with Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip and the PA administering the West Bank.

"Israel, on the other hand, looks at Hamas as an implacable, irreconcilable force," Miller said.

Kerry pushes for peace

On Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri in Cairo, where he pushed for Hamas and Israel to accept a seven-day ceasefire.

But the two sides failed to agree on the terms of a longer pause in fighting, opting instead for a 12-hour truce. Israel said that, during the truce, it would continue to destroy a network of tunnels used by Palestinian militants to stage attacks against Israel.

Secretary Kerry remained optimistic, saying that "gaps have been significantly narrowed" between the two sides on a longer truce.

"It can be achieved, if we work through some of the issues that are important for the parties," he said.

Phased approach

Miller called for a phased approach that de-escalates the current situation in Gaza, creating space for Hamas and Israel's larger grievances to be addressed.

"You have to find a balance between doing nothing and allowing the conflict to play out, and assuming you can get everything," said Miller, who currently serves as the vice president of new initiatives at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

"That balance is somewhere in between complete demilitarization, which Hamas will never accept, and a complete ceasefire which opens up Gaza to the standards it would like," he continued.

slk/dr (AFP, Reuters, dpa)