As bombs continued to rain down on Gaza, Hamas announced that it had agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel that would come into force at 10pm UK time on Tuesday.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters: "An agreement for calm has been reached. It will be declared at 9pm and go into effect at midnight."
However, Hamas later issued a revised statement, saying that it was still waiting for an Israeil response and that any ceasefire would not be in place before Wednesday.
Speaking at a joint press conference on Tuesday with UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu described Israel as a "willing partner to a long-term solution".
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton also arrived in Jersusalem on Tuesday evening for talks with Mr Netanyahu. She said it was "essential to de-escalate the situation" in Gaza.
Earlier in the day Hamas gunmen shot dead six "traitors" suspected of being Israeli collaborators and attached messages to their bodies explaining that they have been executed by Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the organisation, according to a news agency report.
Witnesses told AFP that a minibus pulled up in a Gaza City neighbourhood on Tuesday and six men were pushed out and mown down by gunmen who remained seated inside.
One of the witnesses said: "Gunmen in a minibus pulled up in the neighbourhood, pushed six men out and shot them without leaving the vehicle."
The witness said the messages pinned to the bodies read: "Al-Qassam Brigades announces the execution of the traitors."
Five bodies were left in the street whereupon a mob stamped and spat on them, with some screaming "spy, spy", according to AP.
A sixth body was tied to a motorcycle and dragged through the streets, the news agency said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to the UK has said that civilians in Israel are living through their own version of the Blitz.
In an appeal for support for Israeli military action from the British public, Daniel Taub compares the Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli cities to Nazi Germany's bombing raids on Britain during the Second World War.
Writing on The Huffington Post UK on Tuesday, Taub says that just as Hitler wanted to "terrorise and cow" the people of Britain with bombing raids on their cities, "over one million Israelis have been forced to live under similar conditions, seeking refuge in bomb shelters as a result of thousands of Hamas rocket and mortar attacks".
"While the rockets targeting Israeli civilians – men, women, and children – do not carry as deadly a payload as that of the German bombs of World War II, their aim is equally sinister and illegitimate: to instill fear in the hearts of Israelis and undermine their right to live in a free and independent state," he says.
