Kerry calls for fresh Middle East peace talks as Cairo mediations get underway

Where's Obama in this matter?

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to use the ongoing 72-hour truce that halted fighting in the Gaza Strip as a stepping-stone to restart more far-reaching negotiations. 
Speaking to the BBC, Kerry said that both sides needed to make a "bigger, broader approach to the underlying solution of two states," adding "I believe that the situation now that has evolved will concentrate people's minds on the need to get back to the negotiations and try and resolve the issues."
Kerry spoke on the second day of the truce, which came into effect Tuesday morning and was precipitated by Israel's withdrawal of all ground forces from Gaza. Israeli troops had begun their ground offensive July 17, nine days after the commencement of airstrikes against Hamas rocket sites as part of Operation Protective Edge. Israel said it had destroyed 32 cross-border tunnels used by Hamas to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians. 
In the BBC interview, Kerry said that Israel had a right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Gaza, saying ""No country can live with that condition and the United States stands squarely behind Israel's right to defend itself in those circumstances. Period."
Kerry added that Hamas had "behaved in an unbelievably shocking manner engaging in this activity and, yes, there has been horrible collateral damage as a result." 
Delegations from Israel and the Palestinians were in Cairo Wednesday for the scheduled start of talks on a longer-term cease-fire. As part of the format of the indirect talks, Egyptian mediators planned to shuttle between them to try to work out a deal.
The Palestinian delegation is led by a confidant of Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and includes members of Hamas and other factions. The delegation has presented a list of demands, including a lifting of a joint Israel-Egypt blockade of Gaza and a release of Palestinian prisoners arrested by Israel in a recent West Bank sweep
Israel has refused to do lift the blockade in the past, claiming that such an action would lead to Hamas importing more weapons into the territory, and has countered with demands that Hamas be made to disarm. 
"The extent to which we are going to be ready to cooperate with the efforts to have better access and movement in Gaza will deeply depend on the kind of arrangements that would secure our peace and security," Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior official in Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry, told the Associated Press.
That demand, in turn, has been rejected by senior Hamas officials, with one telling the AP "We'd take the life of anyone who tries to take the weapons of resistance."
The AP also reported that the outlines of a proposed solution would call for Abbas would oversee rebuilding in Gaza and reassert his authority in the territory that his Fatah faction lost to Hamas in 2007.
Forces loyal to Abbas would be deployed at Gaza's crossings to encourage Israel and Egypt to lift the blockade they imposed after the Hamas takeover.
Kuperwasser, the Israeli official, told reporters earlier Tuesday that having forces loyal to Abbas deployed at the Gaza crossings would likely not be enough to allow restrictions to be eased, and that there should also be international supervision.
"Yes, they (Abbas' forces) can have a role in the crossings, but we can't say we can fully trust just Abu Mazen," he said, referring to Abbas. "It's got to be something more robust. International and Egyptian elements should be involved in it. And other means of supervision should be involved as well."
One key sticking point will be the import of construction materials, including cement and steel. Israel says that such materials, meant for civilian use, were diverted in the past by Hamas to build the cross-border attack tunnels
Mohammed Mustafa, a deputy prime minister in the Abbas-led government, said he has already started preparing a Gaza reconstruction plan that would be presented at an international pledging conference in Norway tentatively scheduled for early September. He said the usual lineup of donors — the United States, European Union, Japan, Arab states and international organizations like the World Bank are likely to be there.
The Islamic militant group's fortunes changed dramatically last year after the Egyptian military deposed a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo and began closing hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.
The closures deprived Hamas of a key source of revenue — the taxation of goods brought through the tunnels — and prevented weapons and cash destined for Hamas from flowing into Gaza.