West Bank protests spread; Israel, Hamas agree to 12-hour cease-fire

JERUSALEM — Large Palestinian protests against Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip spread across the West Bank on Friday, while U.S.-led talks to secure a lasting truce sputtered.

In Cairo, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that his efforts to reach a week-long 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. Saturday.

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 Friday, according to local news reports. Two Palestinians were shot dead in a northern village where protesters rioted, and three Palestinians were killed in a southern village during clashes with Israeli soldiers, the reports said.

Kerry had hoped to announce a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas on Friday, envisaging a week-long cease-fire that would begin 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, the militant organization that runs Gaza, to use a week-long 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 from the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu was under no domestic pressure to end the fighting, said Oren, who called the mood in Israel “intensely resilient.”

“We have had twice as many losses as we had in the last two operations” against Hamas in Gaza, he said. “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, speaking alongside U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Arab diplomats, said he will leave the region after five days and head next to Paris to try to enlist European help. Kerry claimed progress but acknowledged that Israel “has some questions.” With evident irritation, he said the Israeli Cabinet vote was engineered to make “mischief.”

As Kerry made a last-ditch round of telephone calls, Israeli airstrikes on 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. Local reporters in Gaza said he was a war propagandist and was not well-known.

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

After Friday prayers, Palestinian protesters in the West Bank declared a “day of rage” against Israel’s assault on Gaza, and demonstrations that began Thursday night spread rapidly across the occupied territory and East Jerusalem.

It was the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, known as al-Quds Day. Israeli police attempted to prevent violence by deploying additional police units and allowing only women and men over 50 to attend prayers in the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.

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.

Israeli media were consumed with questions about whether the events signaled the beginning of the third intifada, or uprising.

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.