Mr Kerry told the BBC the situation could concentrate minds on the need to negotiate a two-state solution.

 

A 72-hour humanitarian³ truce is holding in Gaza, halting a four-week conflict that has claimed more than 1,900 lives.

 

Israel and the Palestinians have sent delegations⁴ to Cairo to discuss the possibility of a longer-term truce.

 

Mr Kerry, in a BBC interview, said the US fully⁵ supported Israel's right to defend itself against militant⁶ rocket attacks.

 

"No country can live with that condition and the United States stands squarely behind Israel's right to defend itself in those circumstances. Period."

 

Asked whether he supported Palestinian demands for a lifting of Israel's blockade of Gaza, Mr Kerry said: "What we want to do is support the Palestinians in their desire to improve their lives and to get food in and to open crossings and to reconstruct and have greater freedom."

 

But he said that had to come "with a greater responsibility towards Israel, which means giving up rockets".

 

Mr Kerry said all this would only come together with a "bigger, broader approach to the underlying⁷ solution of two states" that would provide security for Israel and "a better life and greater freedoms for the Palestinians".

 

Mr Kerry added: "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 of the two states."

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