Israel was considering a 48-hour lull in its Gaza offensive last night to allow humanitarian aid to enter the war-torn territory, opening the door to a possible renewal of a ceasefire with Hamas.

In a flurry of diplomatic activity to halt Israel’s aerial war — which threatens to grow into a full-scale ground offensive — Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, proposed a 48-hour “humanitarian ceasefire” to Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister. The proposal, which would allow aid shipments to enter the besieged strip where 1.5 million Palestinians have weathered four days of bombardment, was passed to Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, who is to discuss it with his security Cabinet today.

“There are propositions, like that of the French diplomatic chief, of a sort of a humanitarian ceasefire. If it is concrete, Israel will examine it,” Isaac Herzog, the Israeli Welfare Minister and a member of the security Cabinet, said.

Should Hamas or other militant factions renew their persistent rocket attacks during the truce period, Israel said that it would renew its devastating campaign, which has left 360 dead and more than 1,500 people wounded, according to Palestinian medics.

Gaza’s creaking medical services, already depleted after months of Israeli blockade, have all but collapsed since the Israeli air force and navy conducted hundreds of airstrikes and bombardments designed, in the words of some Israeli ministers, to wipe Hamas from the face of Gaza.

One problem in organising a secure truce is that the raids have driven Hamas’s Gaza leadership deep underground, making negotiating a deal — which would allow both sides to back away from the brink without losing face — even more difficult. However, Senegal, which is presiding over the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, has said that the Islamists’ Damascus-based leadership had already approached it about a possible truce in the face of Israel’s response to Hamas rockets, which have killed four Israelis since the latest fighting began.

Hamas denied the Senegalese reports and yesterday lobbed its Grad rockets even deeper into the Negev desert and at the southern Israeli coastal cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod, wounding several people. One set a new record for Hamas’s rocket-launchers, striking the town of Beer Sheva 42km (26 miles) from the Gaza Strip.

In its first public statement since the fighting erupted on Saturday, Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said that it would inflict even more harm on Israel if the onslaught did not halt. “If you think that Hamas and al-Qassam will be crushed, we will rise up from the rubble. If you decide to enter the Gaza Strip, the land in Gaza will burn under your feet and it will explode under your soldiers and Gaza children will collect parts of your bodies and your tanks from the streets,” a masked spokesman said in televised comments.

The sudden international burst of diplomatic activity came after leaders were caught off guard by the Israeli blitz so soon after the Christmas holidays. European heads of government, especially President Sarkozy of France and Gordon Brown, were working the phones yesterday to bring about an end to the bloodshed. But there were also divisions emerging in the European position, with the Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic, which takes over the rotating EU presidency from France tomorrow, joining Italy in openly siding with Israel. “Let us realise one thing: Hamas increased steeply the number of rockets fired at Israel since the ceasefire ended on December 19. That is not acceptable any more,” Karel Schwarzenberg said.

Even as it studied the temporary truce proposal, Israel emphasised that it could resume and amplify its attacks if there were any breach. Mr Olmert informed Shimon Peres, the country's ceremonial President, that the aerial phase of the operation was “the first of several stages approved by the security Cabinet”. Israel’s military leaders have said that the task of smashing Hamas and its rocket-firing capabilities could take weeks.

Attacks went on yesterday, with aircraft blowing up a sports centre and two Hamas training camps as well as part of a ministry compound. Among the latest casualties were two young sisters killed while dumping rubbish in their bins, Palestinian officials said. Hamas has insisted that Israel open up the borders that Israel and Egypt control and keep sealed, letting in only a slow drip of basic humanitarian aid.

President Mubarak of Egypt, suspected by some in the Arab world of siding with Israel, said that his country would not unilaterally open the southern crossing it controls at Rafah as that would undermine its treaties with Israel and deepen the division between Hamas and the more moderate Fatah, which runs the West Bank.

Yesterday an Israeli naval patrol rammed a small boat manned by volunteers and with a British skipper that was trying to bring in aid from Cyprus to Gaza, damaging the craft and forcing it to take shelter in Lebanon. The crew said that the incident took place in international waters.

A group of Iranian demonstrators protesting against Israel’s Gaza offensive stormed the British diplomatic compound in Tehran yesterday and pulled down the British flag. They were removed by Iranian police after an hour.

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