MA'AN (Palestinian Territories), THE JERUSALEM POST (Israel) CNN, CBS NEWS (U.S.) REUTERS
As fighting intensified on the seventh day of the Israel-Gaza conflict, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was headed Tuesday to Israel to try to accelerate ceasefire talks.
Senior officials have confirmed that Clinton has left Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, where she was accompanying President Obama, to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem later. She will also travel to Cairo and Ramallah, in the West Bank.
Deputy National Security Director Ben Rhodes told CNN that the visit will push for a "de-escalation of the violence and a durable outcome that ends the rocket attacks on Israeli cities and restores broader calm in the region."
A U.S. official told CBS News that Clinton, however, would not meet with Hamas representatives who control the Gaza strip.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to Clinton before she left for Jerusalem and has also announced his support of Egypt brokering a ceasefire.
#Lavrov: Ms #Clinton and I agreed that Egypt and other countries' peacekeeping efforts in the #Gaza Strip should receive our support
— MFA Russia (@MFA_Russia) November 20, 2012
U.S. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also in the region Tuesday for meetings with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
He is also meeting with Arab League Secretary General Nabil El-Araby amid a summit of Arab League member states in Gaza today.
@UNICEFenEspanol via Twitter
However, violence has only escalated as diplomats attempt to resolve the conflict. Israeli airstrikes have now claimed the lives of at least 110 people in Gaza, with over 900 people injured since the beginning of the offensive November 14.
Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) spokesperson Avital Leibovich is claiming 37 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza this morning. The IDF said a soldier was moderately wounded from the attacks in Beersheba.
These are the results of today's rocket attacks in Beer Sheva. Total of 37 rockets were fired from #Gaza since morning twitter.com/AvitalLeibovic…
— Avital Leibovich (@AvitalLeibovich) November 20, 2012
Palestinian Ma'an news agency is reporting that Hamas' al-Qassam brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have claimed responsibility for targeting the Israeli city of Beersheba, "in response to the massacres in the Gaza strip."
The Jerusalem Post reports that an Israeli man stabbed a security guard at Tel Aviv's U.S. Embassy Tuesday morning.
A passerby from Tel Aviv, David Cohen, told Reuters, "A Mazda car stopped next to the U.S. embassy and a man got out carrying a red bag and a pitchfork.
"He began to run toward the security guards. They saw him, took their guns out and told him to get down on the ground. He continued running and then they fired in the air and ordered him again to lie down. He continued to advance. They jumped on him and took his bag away," said Cohen.
The security guard was slightly injured and the Jewish man, named Bat Yam, is now in police custody.
