Protests spread on West Bank as Israel, Hamas consent to 12-hour respite

JERUSALEM -- Large Palestinian protests against Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip spread across the West Bank Friday, as U.S.-led talks to secure a lasting truce sputtered while Gaza residents awaited a possible lull in fighting.

In Cairo, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that his efforts to reach a weeklong cease-fire in the Gaza Strip fell short. But as condemnation against the Israeli rejection of Kerry's terms rose, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a 12-hour "humanitarian pause" in the fighting, to begin at 8 a.m. today.

Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, announced early Saturday that it would also abide by the pause.

In the occupied West Bank, at least five demonstrators were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces yesterday, according to local media reports.

Kerry had hoped to announce a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas Friday; to start as the Muslim holiday of Eid begins over the weekend and allow time for deeper negotiations that might address Israeli security concerns and loosen Israeli and Egyptian prohibitions on Gazans' travel and trade.

But Israeli cabinet ministers rejected Kerry's proposal for a cease-fire, according to Israeli media accounts. Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said Israel does not want Hamas to use a weeklong cease-fire to redeploy its fighters and rockets. Israel also wants to retain its ability to search for and destroy infiltration tunnels used by Palestinian militants to sneak into Israel.

Netanyahu was under no domestic pressure to end the fighting in Gaza, said Oren, who called the mood in Israel "intensely resilient." "There is a strong sense that we have to go on and pressure Hamas to reach a fundamental change, that Hamas needs to demilitarize."

Kerry said he will leave the region and head next to Paris to try to enlist European help. He claimed progress but acknowledged that Israel "has some questions." With irritation, he said the Israeli cabinet vote was engineered to make "mischief."

Israeli airstrikes Friday hit 30 houses in Gaza, including the home of Salah Hassanein, a leader of the military wing of Islamic Jihad, a militant faction. Hassanein, 45, and two of his sons, ages 12 and 15, were killed, Islamic Jihad said.

Rockets fired from the Gaza Strip continued to reach into Israel, including Tel Aviv, although at a slower pace than the previous days.

Thousands gathered at the main mosque in the West Bank city of Qalandia to mourn the death of Muhammad al-Araj, 17, the lone Palestinian killed during the demonstrations Thursday night. Toward the end of the prayers, a preacher urged Muslims to rise up against Israel.

At the Gaza elementary school where on Thursday hundreds of Palestinian evacuees seeking shelter came under heavy fire, leaving 16 dead and more than 100 wounded, it was still unclear whether Israel had fired, or whether mortars or rockets fired toward Israel by Hamas had fallen short.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza topped 800 as the conflict reached its 18th day. On the Israeli side, at least 35 soldiers, two Israeli civilians and a Thai guest worker have been killed.