Egypt launched an initiative on Monday to halt fighting between Israeli and Palestinian militants, proposing a ceasefire to be followed by talks in Cairo on settling the conflict in which Gaza authorities say more than 170 people have died, according to The Associated Press.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his decision-making security cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the proposal on the Gaza violence, an Israeli official said, the AP reported.
Egypt's proposal would take effect at 2 a.m. on Tuesday as calls for a ceasefire within 12 hours of that time, followed by negotiations between both sides in Cairo within 48 hours, the state news agency MENA said, according to the AP.
A foreign ministry spokesman told state television that Egypt would seek Arab backing for the initiative at an extraordinary meeting of the Arab League on Monday night, the AP reported.
So far the international calls for a ceasefire have had little effect and there were no immediate signs that the initiative by Egypt, which struck a peace treaty with Israel more than 30 years ago, would necessarily succeed, according to the AP.
Egyptian media said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was due in Cairo on Tuesday for talks on the Gaza situation. There was no immediate U.S. confirmation of the report, the AP reported.
The European Union said it was in touch with "all parties in the region" to press for an immediate halt to the hostilities, the worst flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence for almost two years, according to the AP.
Two members of Netanyahu's security cabinet suggested a truce might be in the works, the AP reported.
"There are contacts all the time," Communications Minister Gilad Erdan said when asked about the possibility of Kerry visiting Cairo, according to the AP.
The violence was prompted by the murder of three Israeli teenagers and revenge killing of a Palestinian youth, the AP reported. Israeli officials said on Monday three people arrested over the Palestinian teen's death had confessed to burning him alive.
Peace efforts have been complicated by Hamas's rejection of a mere "calm for calm", in which both sides hold their fire, in favour of wider conditions including prisoner release and an end to Israel's Gaza blockade, according to the AP.
The Israeli army said its aircraft and naval gunboats attacked dozens of targets in Gaza on Monday and that Palestinian militants fired 115 rockets into Israel, wounding a boy in the port city of Ashdod, where a home was damaged, and two girls, 11 and 13, near Beersheba, the AP reported. Palestinian health officials said at least 20 people in the Gaza Strip were wounded.
