Kerry pushes for cease-fire in Gaza, hears Israeli anger on flight ban

JERUSALEM — The United States on Wednesday put the most direct pressure yet on its ally Israel to cut short its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, but Secretary of State John Kerry did not get a deal from Israel or the Palestinians to stop the bloodshed.

Despite a swirl of shuttle diplomacy, the war looked far from over Wednesday. Israeli leaders told their soldiers to prepare for an escalation inside the Gaza Strip, while the leader of Hamas vowed that his Islamist militant movement would not sign a permanent cease-fire until Israel ends its blockade of the coastal enclave.

Late Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration lifted its ban on flights to and from Israel.

Ordinary Israelis accused the Americans of cowardice after the FAA, nervous that Hamas rockets have landed near Israel’s main airport, earlier extended a ban on U.S. commercial flights to Tel Aviv. The decision was bad news for a small, image-conscious country such as Israel whose economy relies on international trade and tourism.

The earlier decision to ban flights for a second day came as Kerry met with in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was angry about the action.

The FAA instituted the ban Tuesday on flights to Ben Gurion International Airport in response to a rocket strike that landed about a mile from the airport.

There were signs the fighting will get worse before it ends. While visiting troops preparing to enter Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon signaled that Israel will broaden its air and ground offensive beyond finding and destroying Hamas rockets and tunnels.

“We are preparing the next stages of the fighting after dealing with the tunnels, and you need to be ready for any mission,” Yaalon told the soldiers. “You need to be ready for more important steps in Gaza, and the units that are now on standby need to prepare to go in.”

The top Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, said his Islamist militant group, which controls the Gaza Strip but is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States, will not sign any lasting cease-fire until Israel lifts its blockade of goods and frees Hamas prisoners.

“From Day One people told us, agree to a cease-fire and then negotiate on your demands,” Meshaal said at a news conference in Qatar, where Hamas maintains offices. “We reject this, and we reject it again tonight.”

But Meshaal did signal that a temporary “humanitarian truce” could still be possible.

U.S. officials are barred from direct meetings or negotiations with the militants.

Two senior State Department officials, who described Kerry’s discussions on the condition of anonymity, said the goal is something that stops the fighting and opens the door for additional negotiations. Kerry returned to Cairo on Wednesday night.

The heavy Israeli bombardment continued Wednesday along a broad front line that stretched the length of the Gaza Strip. In the 16-day conflict, 693 Palestinians have been killed, including 166 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Thirty-two Israeli soldiers have been reported killed in fighting with Hamas and other Palestinian militant factions. Two Israeli civilians and a Thai guest worker have died in rocket or mortar attacks launched from Gaza.

Israel says that one of its soldiers is missing and thought dead. Hamas says it has captured the Israeli but has shown images only of his identification card, not a of a body or prisoner.

On Wednesday, the funeral for an Israeli soldier who is also a U.S. citizen was attended by tens of thousand of mourners at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel’s version of Arlington National Cemetery.

Max Steinberg, 24, who grew up in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley and adored reggae great Bob Marley, was one of thousands of “lone soldiers” who have left their families behind elsewhere in the world to fight for the Israel Defense Forces.

Kerry arrived in Tel Aviv early Wednesday aboard a U.S. Air Force jet not bound by the FAA ban on travel to Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.

Kerry claimed unspecified progress toward a goal of ending a conflict that is drawing rising international criticism of Israel, and by extension Washington, Israel’s most stalwart ally and defender.

The complex diplomacy will require agreement between Israel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to mediate the crisis on behalf of Hamas.