Israel today rejected a French call for a 48-hour pause in its devastating barrage of the Gaza Strip, despite increasing calls around the world for a ceasefire between it and Hamas.

Israeli bombers and artillery pounded buildings in the overpopulated coastal territory for a fifth day, as Palestinian militants continued to fire their unguided rockets deeper into the Jewish state – operations that the Israel offensive was meant to stop.

Almost 400 Palestinians have been killed, a quarter of them civilians according to the United Nations.

The French proposal had called for a so-called “humanitarian ceasefire’ to allow aid supplies into the Gaza Strip, which has all but run out of basic medical necessities and where people are running low on food.

One Palestinian aid worker said that some poorer families, normally dependent on UN handouts that have had to cease because of the deadly bombardment, had started foraging for wild plants to cook and eat.

Israel said that some aid was being allowed through, although Palestinian officials said it was not enough. But it rejected the plan to pause its operations, instead giving the green light for more than 2,000 more reserve troops to be called up for a possible ground offensive.

“Giving Hamas a respite just to regroup, rearm is a mistake,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister. “The pressure on the Hamas military machine must continue.”

Senior Israeli officials have said that the aim of Operation Cast Lead is to obliterate the leadership of Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to exist. They have warned that the campaign may take weeks.

So far, however, the operation has failed to achieve even its basic goal of halting Hamas rocket fire, with Chinese-made Grad missiles penetrating ever further into Israel, for the first time hitting the town of Beersheva, the capital of the Negev region of southern Israel and 25 miles from the Gaza border.

Hamas has also publicly rejected calls for a ceasefire unless Israel loosens its stranglehold on the Gaza Strip, which even before the latest fighting had already reduced Gazans to using cooking oil to fuel their cars and which had totally destroyed the economy.

Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel’s internal security forces, told a cabinet meeting convened to discuss the French proposal that Hamas' ability to rule the territory had been “badly impaired”, and that its weapons factories, where the Qassam rockets are made, had been “completely wiped out.”

A series of bombardments on it extensive tunnel network along the southern border with Egypt had also severely hampered their ability to smuggle in fresh munitions, he said.

Military sources said Israel has so far launched 450 strikes with planes, helicopters, unmanned aircraft, artillery and naval craft, and was still broadening its range of targets, hitting a Hamas money changer responsible for transferring funds for the Islamist movement.

There were signs of disagreement at the top levels of the Israel command, with Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, reportedly favouring a lull while Mr Olmert and the army’s top brass wanted to press ahead.

Preparations for a ground invasion have now been completed, Israeli media reported, although poor weather conditions could delay any military advance.

Many commentators worry that a ground invasion will be costly to both Israel and the Palestinians, with determined Hamas fighters well dug in among a civilian population and ready to fight to the death.

Israeli officials said they not entirely closed to a truce agreement, but it had to be a lasting one that Hamas really committed to.

"There are several propositions submitted by diverse parties throughout the world," said Yigal Palmor, a foreign ministry spokesman.

"There is a dialogue with these parties with the aiming to reach a serious deal for a permanent ceasefire under certain conditions," he added, ostensibly a total halt to Palestinian rocket fire.

A lasting truce would be difficult for mediators, led by Egypt, to arrange, as both sides attach peripheral conditions.

Hamas wants the border crossings to be opened, which Israel would agree to only if they were manned on the Palestinian side by Hamas’s bitter rivals Fatah, with whom Israel is in slow-moving peace talks.

Israel, on the other hand, considers Hamas’s weapons-smuggling activities as a breach of any truce.

France, which holds the outgoing presidency of the European Union (EU), will host Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, tomorrow and an Israeli official said that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France planned to visit Jerusalem next Monday.

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