As US Secretary of State John Kerry shuttled through the Middle East to discuss how to bring and end to the war in Gaza, US officials voiced support for a longer-term plan, beyond a cease-fire, to exit the cycle of conflict between Israel and Hamas, the third in just six years.

"There has to be some way forward that does not involve Hamas having the ability to continue to rain down rockets on Israeli civilians," US deputy national security adviser Antony Blinken told NPR’s "Morning Edition" July 23. "One of the results, one would hope, of a cease-fire would be some form of demilitarization, so that … this doesn't … repeat itself."

Late Wednesday, Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, speaking in Qatar, said he would be prepared to accept a humanitarian truce for Gaza, but only on the condition that the siege of Gaza be lifted. "We are ready for a truce, but we are patient," Meshaal said, according to Bloomberg News.

But aides traveling with Kerry in the Middle East said rumors of an imminent truce were premature. A truce is not there yet, one Kerry aide said, as Kerry returned from Israel to Cairo late Wednesday, according to NBC's Andrea Mitchell.