Mediators worked against the clock on Thursday to extend a truce between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, as the three-day cease-fire went into its final 24 hours.
Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement agreed on Monday to an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire to end four weeks of fighting in the Gaza Strip, while Jerusalem was rocked by two attacks that appeared to be a backlash to the violence.
Israel agreed on Monday to an Egyptian proposal for a three-day cease-fire in a four-week-old Gaza war, to start at 0500 GMT on Tuesday, an Israeli official said.
Israel’s military said it was observing a seven-hour unilateral humanitarian cease-fire.
Obama administration officials called Hamas’ apparent capture of an Israeli soldier in the hours a cease-fire was supposed to be in effect “barbaric” and “outrageous.”
Israel declared a Gaza ceasefire over on Friday, saying Hamas militants breached the truce soon after it came in effect and apparently captured an Israeli officer while killing two other soldiers.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a 72-hour cease-fire in their conflict in the Gaza Strip starting on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday.
Israeli criticism of Secretary of State John Kerry is “unwarranted,” the Israeli ambassador to Washington said, as U.S. officials made public their unhappiness with the attacks.
Behind the feud between John Kerry and Israel over the secretary of state’s efforts to broker a Gaza cease-fire is a larger tension concerning the role of Turkey and Qatar in Palestinian affairs.
President Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he wants an “immediate, unconditional humanitarian” cease-fire in the war with Gaza, based on a process Israel has made clear it opposes.
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