JERUSALEM — Secretary of State John Kerry began a round of intensive meetings here on Wednesday as he sought to forge a cease-fire to stop the bitter fighting in the Gaza Strip.

 

Mr. Kerry began his consultations by meeting in Jerusalem with Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general. He was scheduled to meet later in the West Bank with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, before heading to confer with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

 

Mr. Kerry said at the start of his meeting with Mr. Ban that there had been some steps toward cementing a cease-fire but that “there is still work to do.”

 

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The goal, Mr. Kerry stressed, was not only to obtain a cease-fire but to map out a “sustainable process going forward” that would address some of the long-term grievances of the Palestinians in Gaza and prevent the fighting between Hamas and Israel from erupting every few years. Mr. Kerry also remarked that he had arrived on the day of the funeral in Israel of Max Steinberg, an American who joined the Israeli military and who was killed in Gaza during the ground operation there.

 

Photo

 

Secretary of State John Kerry speaking with Bill Grant, the deputy chief of mission at the United States Embassy, as he arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. Credit Pool photo by Charles Dharapak

Mr. Ban said there was an urgent need to make headway and that he and Mr. Kerry were joining forces on the issue.

 

Achieving a cease-fire, however, will be a formidable task, and there was no sense that Mr. Kerry was near a breakthrough.

 

The aims of his surprise visit seemed to be to get a better sense of the Israelis’ bottom line, support the United Nations effort and enhance the stature of Mr. Abbas, whose influence among Palestinians is being eclipsed by that of Hamas.

 

Mr. Kerry’s plane touched down at Ben-Gurion International Airport, just a day after the Federal Aviation Administration instructed American carriers to suspend flights to Israel. The landing was uneventful, and there were no missile attacks or air raid sirens during Mr. Kerry’s first few hours in Israel.