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Subscribe to RSSSecretary of State Hillary Clinton has undertaken the difficult task of helping to shepherd a possible ceasefire. Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, meanwhile, is playing a key role as an intermediary with Hamas, a group labeled by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
Updated at 4:50 p.m. ET: Following her arrival in Israel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated at a press conference Tuesday that America's commitment to Israel's security is "rock solid," adding that "the goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike."
"The rocket attacks from terrorist organizations inside Gaza on Israeli cities and towns must end, and a broader calm restored," Clinton said, adding that there are no substitutes for security and a just and lasting peace.
Speaking in Jerusalem, Clinton also offered her condolences for those lost in the violence.
"Our hearts break for the loss of every civilian, Israeli and Palestinian, and for all those who have been wounded and are living in fear and danger," she said, adding that she would work with Israel and Egypt on brokering a truce in Gaza "in the days ahead."
Israel is prepared to escalate its offensive but would prefer a long-term diplomatic solution, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
"If there is a possibility of achieving a long-term solution to this problem with diplomatic means, we prefer that," he said in a public statement alongside Clinton.
"But if not, I'm sure you understand that Israel will have to take whatever action is necessary to defend its people."
Earlier, a Hamas official said a truce with Israel would not be reached Tuesday because the Israeli government had yet to respond to proposals.
"The Israeli side has not responded yet, so we will not hold a (news) conference this evening and must wait until tomorrow," Ezzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas leader, told Reuters. "The truce is now held up because we are waiting for the Israeli side to respond," he added in a short telephone interview.
A flurry of violence hit Gaza Tuesday as Israel bombed a Gaza bank and targeted the homes of militants. Hamas responded with more than 100 rockets. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Clinton landed at 9:51 p.m. local time in Tel Aviv, where she met with Netanyahu. Later, Clinton will meet with the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah before heading to Cairo.
A U.S. official stressed to NBC News that Clinton would not meet with representatives of Hamas, the Islamist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, largely because of its failure to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel's right to exist.
Egyptian officials said talks are ongoing to reach a truce in Gaza, although any agreement appears unlikely to address the long-term areas of disagreement between Israel and the Hamas leaders of the Gaza Strip, NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reported Tuesday.
The expected "cessation of hostilities" will call on all parties to use maximum restraint, according to one former intelligence official familiar with the talks.
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Two sides exchange deadly airstrikes, rocket attacks.
Earlier Tuesday, President Barack Obama spoke to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who is seeking to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
According to White House officials, Obama spoke to Morsi for the third time in 24 hours. Deputy National Security adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama wanted to talk to Morsi before Clinton's arrival in Israel.
Rhodes said Obama underscored the importance of Morsi working toward a de-escalation to the conflict in Gaza. He also commended Morsi's efforts to pursue a de-escalation and acknowledged Egypt's important role in the region's security.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attempting to bring about a ceasefire, or to prevent Israel from invading Gaza while convincing Egypt's president to pressure Hamas to stop firing rockets. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
Rhodes said Obama emphasized the importance of a diplomatic solution, but said that rocket fire from Gaza into Israel must stop.
Israel Defense Forces continued airstrikes overnight, and also said 39 rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel Tuesday in a message on its Twitter account.
Since Israel launched its military campaign seven days ago in response to rocket fire, more than 100 people in Gaza and three people in Israel have been killed.
Internationally, the main focus was on stopping the violence, and Morsi hinted at a possible breakthrough Tuesday.
Speaking at his sister's funeral in Egypt, Morsi said the "aggression on Gaza" would end Tuesday. He made the apparently off-the-cuff comments in front of mourners who had come to pay their respects, but did not elaborate. Several journalists traveling with Morsi confirmed he made the remark.
'Army must invade': In southern Israel, support grows for action in Gaza
In Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel would be a “willing partner” in a cease-fire, but also issued a warning.
He said if further military action proved necessary “to stop the constant barrage of rockets, Israel will not hesitate to do what is necessary to defend our people.”
And Mohammed Deif, the new leader of Hamas' military wing, sounded a defiant note, saying that the movement was ready to fight and would not back down from its efforts to liberate Palestine.
He was speaking in his first audio recording since the group’s previous top military commander, Ahmed Jabari, was killed in an Israeli airstrike Wednesday. Deif, who has survived several assassination attempts in the past, called for Hamas’ supporters to remain steadfast.
We are very scared': Egyptians fear being mired in Gaza-Israel crisis
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How Israel's 'Iron Dome' intercepts incoming rockets in Gaza conflict
Israeli government websites under mass hacking attack
'Difficult' situation
It is unclear how much influence Clinton can have on the situation.
“She is going to go out there to be in the region to have direct, face-to-face discussions with those leaders,” Rhodes said. “I don’t want to predict exactly what the outcome of those discussions will be. We all know how difficult this situation is.”
The White House thinks the leaders who are heavily involved in the region “understand what the best outcome is,” Rhodes added, but that a peaceful goal is only achievable “if Hamas takes action to stop what they’ve been doing.”
An Israeli soldier and a civilian died when rockets exploded near the Gaza frontier, police and the army said.
An Israeli air strike on two cars in the Gaza Strip killed six Palestinians Tuesday, while two children died in an attack in the north of the territory, local residents and medics told Reuters.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Tuesday for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and said a threatened Israeli ground operation in the Palestinian enclave would be a “dangerous escalation” that must be avoided.
Later, standing alongside Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Ban urged Israel to show "maximum restraint" and condemned rocket attacks on Israel.
Also Tuesday, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and the foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia and Sudan traveled from Egypt to Gaza in an unprecedented move designed to show solidarity with the Palestinians, NBC News reported.
US Embassy guard wounded
Meanwhile, a man was arrested after he stabbed a security guard Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, a police spokesman told Reuters.
The spokesman said the guard opened fire during the attack.
Israel Radio said the attacker, who police said was armed with a knife and an ax, was wounded.
Oded Balilty / AP
Israeli police officers detain a man who attacked a security guard at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday.
NBC's Shawna Thomas, Ayman Mohyeldin and Ian Johnston, and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Madam Secretary if you or anyone of your staff reads these endless sometimes unintelligible comments on these comment sections, I pray that you above anyone else can secure a peace. I pray that the belligerents give up some of their steadfast long-held positions and lay down their arms, give up a little of what they now refuse to do and for their children and their people accept what heretofore would be unacceptable to create peace. If anyone can do it Secretary Clinton can. With her genius she I believe she can do the impossible. I believe that she can and pray that she will for both sides whose innocents have suffered SO much with so many deaths of so many innocents for so long a time. I hope both sides will forge something that will go down in history for all time!
Gaza has an sea, air, and land blockade by Israeli military forces.
A blockade is an act of war.
The hard-right politicians in Israel are implementing their final solution for the people under siege in Gaza.
Curiously,.... the rhetoric of Hamas and Iran sounds a lot like that of Himmler, Goebbels and Heydrich.....
Yeah right, Gaza is a prison camp---
"In July 2010, Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu Al-Houl wrotein Al-Ahram (Egypt's most prominent newspaper) that "in actual terms" Gaza is not under siege. He further noted that stores were "flowing with goods" at "low prices." Abu Al-Houl went as far as detailing the thriving entertainment and amusement parks industry in Gaza.
Moreover, numbers speak for themselves: in March 2012, the same month when 300 Hamas rockets were fired from Gaza at Israeli towns, 3,653 truckloads of goods were delivered from Israel to Gaza and 1,375 Gazan patients and companions entered or passed through Israel for medical treatments, followed by another 1,364 in April, 2012.
In August 2012, the Hamas prime minister's brother in law was allowed to enter Israel for treatment in an Israeli hospital."
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3453/besieging-gaza
An understanding of the nature and behavior of reptiles is needed before negotiating with Hamas or the PA.
At least this is one time that obamy is right. Sending hillreeee clinton there is smart because they have respect for a man in Israel. Obamy would carry no respect!!!! Like I said they respect men!!
Send in "The Hag." I wonder which Terrorist wife she will find to Kiss this time. Arafat's wife is in exile. While her Pathetic boss is dining his way through Asia, The Hag does his Dirty Work. She's as good as anyone. I hope the Two-Faced Lying Clinton has to hide in a Sewer when the Air Raid Sirens sound. It's where she belongs. Meanwhile, while she wastes more perfectly good oxygen, Kick _ss Israel and Don't Stop until All your Enemies are Defeated. Something the Socialist Republic of the US has forgotten how to do.
Alan, have you had your coffee yet? You need more sugar dear....your post is hateful, vile, and bitter.
I don't care, you're entitled to your opinion, but it's not healthy to harbor such anger and hatred.
Maybe you need a nap already.
Still, getting over your "loss"? therapy won't help!
The goal of Secretary Clinton appears to be to help avert a ground invasion and stop the fighting, at least temporarily. She appears less concerned with the particulars of the terms of the cease fire, except those that interfere with a cease fire--a big enough task. Israel is surely more than capable of defining terms now that do not put it in a box in the future, provide more than temporary relief from the missiles, and provide a measure of security (including taking into account the depleted stock of Iranian-supplied weapons).
The situation is not stable, and the fighting will probably be unrelenting on both sides until an agreement is signed. Her trip has already achieved a limited objective: there will be no ground invasion until she completes her talks and leaves Egypt, preferably having helped meet the two goals.
The only certainty in the situation is that both sides recognize that a ground invasion must be avoided if at all possible.
Secretary Clinton brings authority, moderation and a way out for all parties--including Egypt. She is respected. The United States will support all sides in an agreement. A remaining issue will be what role, if any, the US will play in the reconstruction of Gaza.
With the pieces taken together, the approach seems to strike the right balance, and will probably be successful. If so, the fighting will likely stop no later than Friday.
She can't even control her husband, how can she mediate peace in the Middle East? She's no Henry Kissinger. And he couldn't do it either...
You mean slick Willy can't control himself.....
Clinton is going over there with her bag of money to buy peace. Israel will get an improved missile defense system and Palestine will have all damage done by Israel's missiles rebuilt better than new. And then of course, she will have to bribe officials of both countries to accept these terms...and maybe she will toss a little something in for Egypt.
So this confrontation will cost us about 1/2 a billion dollars. And once again the only loser is us. We won't buy the love of either side, and the world will continue to hate us.
God bless HILLARY R. CLINTON. She is the greatest American Hero in the history of the United States. She should be given sainthood for her efforts and diplomacy and grace.
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please step away from the pipe.
You are correct Celtic ....S.Aud inhaled for sure ...... Oh and Celtic ....love those green and white striped jerseys .....
@ Celtic: Congrats to you guys beating Barcelona! You have one h*ll of a goalkeeper to keep Messi down to only one goal - and way, way into stoppage time :)
Hamas started this by firing rockets into Israel so now let Israel do whatever they need to protect their citizens.
Hasn't H.Clinton done enough in this part of the world ? This is the last person we need over there ........talk about kicking a hornets nest.....WTF is this administration thinking ?
In the movies, this is where she dies. About to retire, one last mission, so close to being with her loved ones.
What could happen?
Damn Ray ......classic scenario ......but a little rough .....don't you think ? geeeez...
Clinton's assignment: rebuild and re-supply hama's weapons warehouses!!!
about ten days late don't you think? Of course she had other priorities. Wine tasting in Australia, playing with obama in Myanmar and of course, avoiding like hell the Benghazi scandal.
best plan for US = slow disengagement from Israel... turn the money spigot off... let them live or not on their own
Netanyahu: Israel demands cease-fire include a long-range agreement, would ensure no more rockets will be fired into Gaza - @Haaretzcom
1 hour ago
If Israel does not insist on an agreement with terms now providing long protection--"enough is enough"-- it will not achieve it later.
The rockets from Gaza surely made the Iranians happy, but will prove to be a catastrophic blunder by and for the Palestinians.
If she's not going to talk to Hamas what's the point of her visit?
Hillary going to Gaza and do what??? What is her end game? What muscle does she have? What has her success rate been in mediation?
Would venture to say she will be back with her tail between her legs and spouting "success" as the invasion takes place.
Irrational denial is a trademark of this administration.
best plan for US = slow disengagement from Israel... turn the money spigot off... let them live or not on their own
"We came ....we saw .....they died" ~ Hillary Clinton .......Suspected next quote
Why not send Ambassador Susan Rice for a fresh start.....
The world has observed Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and the love and caring of her marriage (Possibly similar to Gen. Petraeus, Gen. Allen, FBI Agent Humphries actions, etc.); what "message" does she wear each time she is on the world stage.(Outdone by Monica?).
best plan for US = slow disengagement from Israel... turn the money spigot off... let them live or not on their own
Hillary, failed in Benghazi, what is her goal this time???
best plan for US = slow disengagement from Israel... turn the money spigot off... let them live or not on their own
obama agrees with you But he has no choice (thankfully), other than support Israel at this time!!!
best plan for US = slow disengagement from Israel... turn the money spigot off... let them live or not on their own
Your cut and paste button is stuck!
Since Imperial Rome, it has happened again and again. Jews enraged their neighbors and repeatedly suffered disastrous pogroms. Excesses of Weimar Germany's monied Jewish minority led to the most recent which Israel promotes, actually advertises, as justification for its apartheid malevolence. “Never again” is lost on Netanyahu's Israel. Blind to history, its paranoid pursuit of invulnerability, territorial conquest and supremacist empire in, and beyond, the Mideast ensures “again” on a far grander scale. Abandoning and aggressively isolating the Jewish state would force it abandon its grandiose aspirations and thereby avert its destruction. There is no greater or kinder support that America could render to both the Mideast and its “inseparable Mideast ally.”
John: Please....., lay of the Dolchtoss Bullsh*t: even if Jews were the main cause of Wiemar's failure, doe that justify the Holocaust? And your precious imperial Rome hold the title of being the second biggest killer of Jewry: (the Bar Kokhba war of 135) - And what is Israel's "grandiose" aspiration? To exist? To actually go a week without having a bombing? to not to have live in fear of wearing a d--m yellow star on you jacket?
I bet you would not like it one little bit if the Pennsylvania National guard lobbed missiles into Charleston, Wheeling, Parkersburg; or if the Virginia Guard attacked Huntington? Yes, it sounds silly, but this is what Israel (and Gaza) experience on a daily basis....
When was the last time your place saw war? I bet it was 1865. A long time ago...
PS I am not a Jew - Just someone who believes people should be allowed to live - and be left be.
This s Dawinism at its finest. If you are stupid enough to shoot rockets at Israel you deserve what ever you get. The cowards at Hamas should face charges for targeting civilians and for using their own people as human shields.
I'm sick and tired of hearing about the conflicts out there. I don't care about these people one bit and I just wish they would blow each other up and get it over with. There will NEVER be peace out there so yes, please just blow each other up. The US should not get involved but hey, we are the world's police force and we stick our unwanted noses in to everything. Hey maybe Obama can give them a couple of billion dollars of tax payers money while he's at it too.
This trip is to hand deliver $147 million dollars dierectly to a terrorist organization, Hamas. Good job, team Obama. COntinue to help arm those who wish to destroy us.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/04/13/obama-sends-147-million-to-hamas-run-gaza
Looks like the power vacuums of Arab Spring are being filled by leaders and organizations that are both anti-Israel & anti-American. Is Hamas our enemy with Israel AND our ally in Syria?
I would also love to hear some people's idea of how THEY think Obama should handle it? Should we take sides with one over the other and just kill off the Palestinians. Let's get this straight, the heavy handed terrorist loving groups inside that country are the ones responsible for starting the whole mess and unfortunately you do have people caught at the crossfires. Hamas needs to go in order for there to peace and a 2 state idea to take fruition.
I don't see any change in the US and Israel policies in the middle east. This is a new middle east and they need to get ahead of the curve. This is not 1980. The dictators are gone or on the way out. US economy is struggling to recover etc
Yes obama has cleared the way for the peace loving, muslim brotherhood,
to lead the way toward world peace???