As the bloody battles pushed up tragic death tolls on both sides, world powers held a flurry of diplomatic meetings Wednesday aimed at halting the fighting in Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while several Middle Eastern nations worked to try to win Hamas' agreement for an Egyptian-led cease-fire.

But perhaps the most powerful message came from a woman whose son's death played a role in sparking the current fighting.

"Your children and our children -- nobody should really go through what we're going through now," said Rachel Fraenkel, whose son Naftali was among three Jewish teens kidnapped and killed on the way home from school in the West Bank last month. Israel blamed Hamas. Later, a Palestinian teen was killed in what Israel calls a revenge attack. Israel has indicted an adult and two minors for the killing.

The Fraenkels are American citizens. Yishai Fraenkel, Naftali's uncle, works to bring Palestinians into Israel's high-tech sector.

Rachel Fraenkel met with Kerry on Wednesday. Afterward, speaking to media, she said, "I just want to turn to Palestinian parents and say maybe you can stop Hamas from using you as human shields and your death as propaganda."

"I promise the Palestinian parents: All we want is to live in peace and raise our children without threats of missiles or tunnels under our communities," noting that an Israeli kindergarten was struck by a rocket this week -- it was empty at the time.

"Maybe we can teach our children that we want to live in peace," she said.

Some Palestinian parents visited her family after Naftali's death and they had very good conversations, she said. "I do know decent, good Palestinian people."

Israeli Jewish families also visited the family of Mohammed Abu Khedair, the Palestinian teen killed.

Despite Fraenkel's sentiments, many Palestinian parents accuse Israel of carrying out a "massacre" -- and have called on Israelis to push the government to stop military action.

"Nobody is safe and nobody can flee anywhere because everywhere is targeted," said a mother of two who lives in the al-Remal neighborhood of Gaza City, as CNN reported Monday. "When we hear the shelling my kids will cry."

(CNN)