Reuters

Cairo

US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Hamas yesterday to pursue a negotiated end to its conflict with Israel after what he said were constructive talks with Egyptian officials about their ceasefire proposal.

After meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country has some leverage over Hamas through its control of a border crossing from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, Kerry said there was still “work to do” to resolve the conflict.

Israel pounded targets in the Gaza Strip yesterday and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, seen as the most dovish member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner security cabinet, told Israeli Army Radio: “A ceasefire is not near.”

“Hamas has a fundamental choice to make and it is a choice that will have a profound impact for the people of Gaza,” Kerry told reporters in a joint appearance with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukri.

“The Egyptians have provided a framework and a forum for them to be able to come to the table to have a serious discussion together with other factions of the Palestinians,” he added, calling the US-Egyptian talks “constructive meetings”.

Hamas has already rejected the Egyptian initiative, saying the plan ignores its demands for the release of prisoners and for a more comprehensive lifting of an economic blockade on the Gaza Strip.

In a sign of the intensity of the US diplomacy, Kerry spoke to Netanyahu and to the foreign ministers of Turkey and Qatar after his two-hour meeting with Sisi, according to a senior US official.

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