THE new Israeli Prime Minister flew into Britain last night, his visit overshadowed by the renewed bloodshed in Gaza that prompted Hamas to break its 15-month ceasefire.

Even as Ehud Olmert prepared for talks with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, met for late-night talks with Hamas in an attempt to defuse a crisis over his proposed referendum on a two-state solution.

It is a gamble by Mr Abbas, who has widespread public support for the plebiscite but finds himself caught between a furious Hamas-led Government that regards the vote as a ruse to marginalise it, and Mr Olmert, who publicly declared it “meaningless” before arriving in London.

The stakes were raised over the weekend when the military wing of Hamas announced an end to its 15-month ceasefire, prompted by the deaths of eight civilians, apparently killed by an Israeli artillery shell as they ate a picnic on a Gaza beach.

Palestinians were incensed by the deaths after seeing emotive pictures of young Huda Ghalia wailing over her father’s body. Her mother and siblings were also killed.

Israel’s military halted all artillery firing into Gaza but, while Mr Olmert expressed his condolences and promised an investigation, his Government held open the possibility that the explosions could have been caused by Palestinian fire.

“Our expression of sorrow is not a suggestion of responsibility,” Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, the Chief of Staff, said.

Hamas immediately resumed firing its home-made Qassam rockets into Israeli border communities and threatened an “earthquake in the Zionist towns”.

The rockets critically wounded one Israeli in Sderot, which prompted Israeli helicopter gunships to kill two Hamas militants suspected of launching the rockets.

British officials say that Mr Blair will raise the issue of the shelling with Mr Olmert. Margaret Beckett, who issued a statement saying that she was “deeply concerned”, said that she would also pursue the matter with Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister.

Mr Olmert will also be asked to clarify his plan to withdraw Jewish settlers from isolated settlements in the West Bank, in return for the de facto annexation of larger settlement blocs around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The proposal met with lukewarm support in Washington last month, where President Bush described it as “bold”, he but urged Mr Olmert to resume negotiations with Mr Abbas. Mr Blair is likely to reinforce that message.

British officials say that the Israeli delegation is also likely to be questioned about the death of two Britons, the cameraman James Miller and the student Tom Hurndall, for whom inquest juries returned verdicts of unlawful killing after both were shot by Israeli soldiers in 2003. Israeli officials say that they are intent on furthering a mood of “co-ordination and co-operation” with London and other European capitals.

“Britain is very important. It is a major component of the axis of the counterterrorism campaign which the United States is leading,” Ranaan Gissin, a senior aide to Mr Olmert, said. The aim of the trip, he said, was to “try to revive the peace process in accordance with [President Bush’s] ‘roadmap’ ”. Mr Abbas, meanwhile, was scheduled to meet with Ismail Haniya, the Prime Minister, to resolve the crisis brought about by the power struggle between their respective parties, Fatah and Hamas. Hamas yesterday withdrew its backing from the document at the heart of the dispute, a paper drawn up by Palestinian prisoners from all factions.

Mr Abbas’s delighted supporters see the referendum as a way out of the deadlock caused by having a Hamas Government and Fatah presidency.

However, Sami Abu Zohri, a Hamas spokesman, accused Mr Abbas last night of trying to set up his office as a parallel government, and said that the referendum was illegal.

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