Clinton due to meet Israeli Prime Minister

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is travelling to Israel for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow.

The White House said Mrs Clinton would visit Jerusalem, Ramallah and Cairo for talks on the Gaza crisis. 

She was at a summit in Cambodia with President Barack Obama, before leaving for the Middle East.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the message of her trip will be that it is in nobody's interest for there to be an escalation of military conflict in Gaza.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is due to meet Mr Netanyahu today.

He has warned that an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza would be a "dangerous escalation".

Speaking after talks with Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby in Cairo, Mr Ban called for an immediate ceasefire.

Israel's leaders weighed the benefits and risks of a ground operation at a meeting that lasted into the early hours of the morning.

A senior official said Mr Netanyahu intended to exhaust all diplomatic efforts to see if a long-term ceasefire can be achieved.

Meanwhile, a rocket was fired at Jerusalem today but did not hit the city, according to police.

It was the second time a rocket has been launched toward Jerusalem since Israel's Gaza offensive began last Wednesday.

Sixteen Hamas missiles were fired at the southern Israeli city of Beersheba after Israel's military targeted roughly 100 sites in Gaza overnight, including ammunition stores and the Gaza headquarters of the National Islamic Bank.

Some 110 Palestinians have died in a week of fighting, the majority of them civilians, including 27 children.

Three Israelis died last week when a Gaza missile struck their house.

Russia has accused the United States of blocking a bid by the UN Security Council to condemn the escalating conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.

It also claimed that other council members were filibustering the issue.

The US said, however, it was important that the 15-member council does not harm efforts under way in Cairo to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas militants.

The UNSC held heated closed-door talks on a possible statement, but diplomats said a sticking point was that the text did not mention Hamas missile attacks on Israel.

Israel said it was these attacks that prompted its major offensive against the militants in Gaza.

Council members were consulting with their capitals on the draft statement, which needs to be approved by consensus, but several diplomats said it was unlikely an agreement would be reached by a deadline set for today.

Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said that if the council could not agree, he would put a resolution - a stronger move by the council than a statement - to a vote to call for an end to the violence and show support for regional and international efforts to broker peace.

"One member of the Security Council, I'm sure you can guess which, indicated ... they will not be prepared to go along with any reaction of the Security Council," Mr Churkin said earlier in a thinly veiled reference to the US.

"Somehow, allegedly, that could hurt the current efforts carried out by Egypt and the region," he said.

A resolution is passed when it receives nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the five permanent council members - Russia, China, Britain, the US and France.

Some diplomats said a vote on the Russian resolution would likely be tight and could force a veto by the US.

The Security Council is generally deadlocked on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which UN diplomats say is due to the US' determination to protect its close ally Israel. The council held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the Israeli strikes on Gaza but took no action.

Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour said the council cannot "remain on the margin".

"We emphasised the urgency of the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility and to stop this aggression against our people," Mr Mansour told reporters after yesterday's negotiations.

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