Some progress is being made in negotiations regarding a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Gaza, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday. 

Secretary Kerry said the two sides have made "some steps forward" in negotiating a deal to end the three-week long conflict between Israel and Hamas that has gripped the region in violence, according to The Washington Post. 

"There is still work to be done," Kerry told reporters while holding discussions in Israel with Israeli President Shimon Peres, as well as in the West Bank. 

The violence has claimed the lives of more than 650 Palestinians, 29 Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians and a Thai guest worker. Around 4,000 Palestinians have also been wounded in Israeli airstrikes. 

Israel continued shelling the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza and Gaza City Wednesday morning. 

Meanwhile, Hamas continued to lob rockets into Israel towns Wednesday, while the funeral was held for Israeli soldier and U.S. citizen Max Steinberg, 24, from Woodland Hills, California. An estimated 30,000 Israelis attended his funeral. 

Kerry first met with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who has been calling for an end to what he called "atrocious" violence. 

While Ban thanked Kerry, neither he nor Kerry offered details on when a permanent cease-fire will be implemented. 

"We do not have much time to wait and lose," Ban said.

Kerry then met with officials in Ramallah in the West Bank headquarters of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is mediating on Hamas' behalf. Abbas' Fatah party is now in a unity government with Hamas and is increasingly losing power as the fighting continues. 

Both Israel and the United States consider Hamas a terrorist group, and U.S. officials are not allowed to have direct meetings with Hamas militants. While Abbas tried to mend Fatah and Hamas' seven-year division, the unification government is now being blamed for helping incite the current conflict. 

After the session in the West Bank, Kerry said some progress had been made. 

Kerry said Abbas is committed to nonviolence, and that Abbas has been "working with of all the interested groups and parties and encouraging people to do the responsible thing, which is to come to the table."

Kerry also said that peace must be restored to the region. 

"The people in the Palestinian territories, the people in Israel, are all living under the threat or reality of immediate violence," he told reporters. "This needs to end, for everybody. We need to find a way forward that works, and it's not violence."

Meanwhile, an emergency meeting was held in Geneva, at which U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Israeli strikes are concerning and that there is a possibility that "international law has been violated."

Israeli diplomats responded by saying that Hamas has been bombing Israeli cities for weeks and that Gaza militants are using people as human shields by launching and storing weapons in mosques, schools and hospitals. And while the IDF always tries to avoid harming civilians, Hamas purposely fires at Israeli schools and homes. 

Meanwhile, crowds gathered at Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem, where many fallen soldiers and Israeli dignitaries are buried, for Steinberg's funderal Wednesday. Some mourners reportedly fainted and were carried away on stretchers. 

Steinberg's parents flew to Israel to attend the funeral. They said the soldier was 5-foot-three, and though he was small in stature, he was big in heart. His parents said he was a big Bob Marley fan, and friends and family read Bob Marley quotes to honor his life. 

Steinberg, who was trained as a sniper, was killed Sunday with other members from Israel's elite Golani Brigade. They were killed when Hamas militants attacked their personnel carrier in eastern Gaza. 

"Do we have any regrets that Max enlisted in the IDF as a lone soldier?" his father Stuart Steinberg said during the funeral, according to The Washington Post. "The answer is an unequivocal, 'No.'"

All American and some major European carriers also suspended flights to Israel Tuesday after the Federal Aviation Administration warned against flying to Israel's main airport near Tel Aviv because of a Hamas rocket hitting a house near the airport. Despite the suspension, travelers were able to fly to Israel through an additional airport in southern Israel. Ovda airport, which is close to Eilat, the southernmost town near Israel's border with Egypt, closed down several years ago.

Eighty flights to and from Israel were canceled Tuesday because of the FAA decision, stranding many travelers. 

While the Israeli government was angry over the suspension, the U.S. State Department said the suspension was enacted to protect American citizens. The department made the statement so the decision was not viewed as a way to put pressure on Israel to capitulate to Hamas' demands. 

Hamas' demands, which were relayed by Hamas leaders to Abbas Tuesday in Qatar, include ending the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and releasing hundreds of Hamas prisoners. 

A senior Israeli official also said Tuesday that there is a possibility that Oron Shaul, a missing Israeli soldier, may have been captured alive by Hamas or another militant group in Gaza.