No Gaza truce yet: Kerry

Speaking at a news conference in Cairo with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, Kerry said the two sides agreed a general framework, but that there were details that still needed work.

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

Kerry, Ban and Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri, who was also at the press conference, all called for a seven-day lull in fighting between Israel and Hamas. The ceasefire is intended to take place for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday next week.

Ban said the truce could begin with a 12-hour extendable pause in fighting.

Israeli rejection?

Kerry also questioned media reports on Friday that said Israel's Security Cabinet had rejected his truce proposal, saying he had never submitted a formal proposal for the Cabinet to vote on.

Israeli TV reports said the Cabinet had unanimously rejected Kerry's proposal because it would not have allowed Israel to continue destroying tunnels used by Palestinian militants to carry out cross-border attacks.

Kerry said Israel may have rejected some of the language in a truce porposal draft.

"We still have some terminology... to work through, but we are confident that we have a fundamental framework that can and will ultimately work," he said.

He added that he would be attending a meeting in Paris on Saturday to further discuss the ceasefire proposal.

Unceasing violence

Fighting between Israel and Hamas continued on Friday despite intensifying international mediation efforts.

The 18-day conflict, in which Israel has responded to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip with air strikes and a ground offensive, has killed more than 800 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and some 38 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

Friday saw the violence spill over to the West Bank, with six Palestinians killed in separate incidents near the cities of Nablus and Hebron. Witnesses blamed one shooting on an apparent Israeli settler.

Israel reported that three more of its soldiers were killed on Friday in Gaza and also announced that a soldier unaccounted for after an ambush six days ago was definitely dead, although his body had not yet been recovered.

Three Israeli civilian deaths through Palestinian rocket fire have strengthened Israeli resolve to continue with its offensive until Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, is weakened.

Meanwhile, German airline Lufthansa and French airline Air France said on Friday that they would resume flights to Israel.

Several international airlines had suspended flights to Tel Aviv on Tuesday after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main aviation hub.

tj,rc (AFP, AP, Reuters)