CCTV9英语新闻：加沙战火暂停（在线收听）

Fighting in the Gaza Strip looked like it was headed for escalation after US Secretary of State John Kerry failed to broker a week long truce as a first step toward a broader deal and Israel’s defense minister stated that Israel might "significantly expand" its Gaza ground operations. Earlier, we spoke to our correspondent Roee Ruttenberg in Tel Aviv. 

"The Israeli Security Cabinet and Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu met for hours on Friday, the ceasefire brokered by John Kerry would be rejected. One of the reasons appears to be Israel want to guarantee its operation to continue there, to break up or destroy network of tunnel Israel believes has been built by Hamas in the hopes of penetrating underground into Israel. There are reports that Israeli experts says the military still need one or two weeks to continue that sort of operation. John Kerry is in Cairo hopes to continue that ceasefire before ...holiday...that appears not on the table at the moment....Kerry and other world leaders will travel to Paris to meet with both other European official and representative from Turkey, hoping to reach other ceasefire deals. We haveN’t hear from Hamas’ response about Kerry’s proposal. but at this moment, a seven-day ceasefire is off the table, Roee Ruttenberg said.