Hamas says Gaza truce agreed; Israel, Egypt say no deal yet: US blocks UN Security Council action

A Hamas official said Egyptian mediators had clinched a truce with Israel on Tuesday that would go into effect within hours, but Egypt and Israel said a Gaza cease-fire deal was still up in the air after a week of fighting. "The talks are still continuing," an Egyptian official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. He said Cairo was hopeful of an agreement later in the day.
Israel pressed on with its strikes in Gaza on the seventh day of its offensive and Palestinian rockets still flashed across the border as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Israel on Tuesday for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aimed at helping forge a truce with Hamas in Gaza, the State Department said. After meeting Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday night, Clinton is scheduled to meet Palestinian leaders in the West Bank on Wednesday morning before heading to Cairo for talks the same day with President Mohamed Morsi.
Meanwhile, The United States blocked on Tuesday a UN Security Council statement condemning the escalating conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, setting the scene for a possible showdown between Washington and Russia on the issue. The United States opposed the statement - which had to be approved by consensus - because it "failed to address the root cause" - missile attacks by Hamas - of the escalation in fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, said Erin Pelton, spokeswoman for the US mission to the United Nations.
Medical officials in Gaza said 21 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday. An Israeli soldier and a civilian died when rockets exploded near the Gaza frontier, police and the army said. Gaza medical officials say 130 people have died in Israeli strikes, mostly civilians, including 31 children. In all, five Israelis have died, including three civilians killed last week.
Clinton was due to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late on Tuesday in Jerusalem. Earlier, he said that Israel was open to a long-term deal aimed at ending Palestinian rocket attacks that have plagued its southern region for years. Khaled Meshaal, exile leader of Hamas, said on Monday that Israel must halt its military action and lift its blockade of the Palestinian coastal enclave in exchange for a truce. Both Netanyahu, favoured to win a January national election, and US President Barack Obama have said they want a diplomatic solution, rather than a possible Israeli ground operation in the densely populated territory, home to 1.7 million Palestinians.
Speaking to Reuters from Cairo, where intensive efforts have been under way to end the violence, Hamas official Ayman Taha said "an agreement for calm has been reached". He said it would be declared at 9 pm (1900 GMT) - though no deal was announced as the clock ticked past that hour - and take effect at midnight (2200 GMT).
Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev told Reuters that Taha's announcement was premature and Israeli military operations in Gaza would continue in parallel with diplomacy: "We're not there yet," Regev said on CNN. "The ball's still in play." Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, speaking after Taha made his remarks, said the group was still waiting to hear whether Israel would accept the terms of a deal: "Cairo informed us they expect the response to be positive," Abu Zuhri said.
Israel's military on Tuesday targeted about 100 sites in Gaza, including ammunition stores and the Gaza headquarters of the National Islamic Bank. Israeli police said more than 150 rockets were fired from Gaza by the evening. "No country would tolerate rocket attacks against its cities and against its civilians. Israel cannot tolerate such attacks," Netanyahu said with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who arrived in Jerusalem from talks in Cairo, at his side.