Israel keeps up Gaza assaults, Kerry presses for truce --- (Reuters) - Israel kept up its assaults in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing three Palestinians in as many air strikes, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the region with a mission to seek a ceasefire in the 14-day-old conflict "as soon as possible." -- The deaths in Khan Younis, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya raised the Palestinian toll to 539 killed, including nearly 100 children and many other civilians, since the offensive was launched on July 8, Gaza health officials said. -- Israel's death toll also rose to 29, with two soldiers killed in the past day of fighting, the Israeli military said. The total includes two civilian killed by rocket fire. -- Violence also spread to the occupied West Bank, where medics said soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man while dispersing protesters throwing stones at a military jeep. -- Israel said a Palestinian shot at a car and seriously wounded an Israeli in the Nablus area on Tuesday. -- Kerry arrived in Cairo on Monday and, during talks with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the United States would provide $47 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza. -- Washington is "deeply concerned about the consequences of Israel's appropriate and legitimate effort to defend itself," Kerry said. "No country can stand by when rockets are attacking it." -- "But always, in any kind of conflict, there is a concern about civilians - about children, women, communities that are caught in it," Kerry said. -- A senior State Department official said on Kerry's flight to Cairo that Washington's goal was to "achieve a cessation of hostilities as soon as possible," but that the process would be difficult with the sides far apart on terms for a truce. --- Israel has signalled it is not in a hurry to achieve a truce before reaching a goal of crippling Hamas's militant infrastructure, including rocket arsenals and networks of tunnels threatening Israelis living along the Gaza frontier. - More, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/22/us-palestinians-israel-idUSKBN0FP00U20140722