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The 12-hour ceasefire in Middle East is far less than the week-long truce¹ jointly³ requested by US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. That joint² proposal was rejected by the Israeli security cabinet on Friday. But still, Kerry reiterated⁴ that Israel is committed to finding a solution for a ceasefire in Gaza, and that more work is needed to reach a deal on a seven-day truce.

"At this moment, we are working towards a brief seven days of peace, seven days of a humanitarian⁵ ceasefire in honor of Eid, in order to be able to bring people together to try to work to create a more durable⁶, sustainable ceasefire for the long run," John Kerry said.

"Tensions are spreading further, we are seeing growing unrest in the West Bank. Surely now the parties must realize that it is time for them to act and solutions must be based on three important issues. First, stop the fighting. We call for a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire, extending over the Eid period and beginning with an extendable 12-hour pause," Ban Ki-moon said.

John Kerry has been moving between the Egyptian capital Cairo, the West Bank and Jerusalem, and talking to officials from Qatar, which is in contact with Hamas. The worst round of cross-border fighting in more than five years has killed eight-hundred and twenty-eight Palestinians and wounded more than 5-thousand two hundred. 

The UN says civilians⁷ make up three-fourths of the dead and a majority of the wounded. In Israel, 38 people have been killed since July 8th, including 35 soldiers, two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker.