Article content continued

But Kerry’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, cast suspicion on the validity of reported anti-American sentiments inside the Palestinian Authority on Monday.

“We know there have been some comments out today about [President Abbas’s] view,” she told reporters. “We’ve been in touch with people close to him and [the comments are] not accurate, and we expect there’ll be a clarification of those.”

Kerry’s weekend ceasefire negotiations in Paris, which drew in representatives from Turkey and Qatar, was much maligned in Israel, with leading liberal newspaper Haaretz saying Kerry had “ruined everything.”

The involvement of Qatar, a well-known funder of Hamas, and Turkey – whose prime minister last week said Israel’s operation in Gaza “surpasses what Hitler did to them” – was too much for Israel, whose officials in Washington were infuriated by the lack of condemnation of Turkey’s words.

After the proposal was rejected, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised speech Monday that his country must be ready for “a prolonged campaign” against Hamas in Gaza.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

But on Tuesday, Kerry said he says he is not concerned about widespread criticism of his efforts to win a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and will continue to work toward that goal.

Kerry said he was convinced that a humanitarian cease-fire followed by negotiations to resolve the underlying causes of the conflict is “more appropriate” than “a tit-for-tat of violence that will invite more violence.” He said he is fully supportive of Israel’s right to self-defence and denied accusations that his cease-fire effort would hurt its security.

Though he said he wasn’t “worried” by the criticism, Kerry showed flashes of pique in his comments, saying at one point that he would not “take a second seat to anybody” in his devotion to Israel’s security.

With files from the Associated Press and the Telegraph