Israel continued with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip after a ceasefire truce attempted by Egypt was rejected by Hamas.

Around 100,000 Palestinians in eastern and northern Gaza were warned about the strikes through recorded telephone messages and pamphlets on Tuesday.

At least three Palestinians were killed in the airstrikes in the early hours today, Agence France Presse reported.

The strikes also destroyed the house of senior Hamas political leader Mahmoud Zahar, who escaped the attack.

Israel stopped its offensive for six hours on Tuesday after the security cabinet approved a ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt.

However, Hamas rejected the truce that would have ended the week-long offensive. More than 200 Palestinians have been reportedly killed and thousands wounded since the air strikes began on 8 July.

"Israel stopped its offensive for six hours on Tuesday after the security cabinet approved a ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt."

Hamas has put forward pre-conditions to accept the deal. It wanted the economic blockade of Gaza to be lifted to facilitate trade.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by BBC as saying: "This would have been better resolved diplomatically; that’s what we tried to do when we accepted the Egyptian truce proposal.

"But Hamas leaves us no choice but to expand and intensify the campaign against it."

A senior Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said a ceasefire cannot be reached without knowing the details of any agreement.

Egypt proposed that the ceasefire could be followed by a series of meetings involving high-level delegations from the two sides in Cairo.

Meanwhile, Israel has reportedly mobilised troops on the border of Gaza, fuelling speculation of a ground invasion.

Defence Technology