The member of an Egyptian security delegation, based in the Gaza Strip, was speaking to AFP following talks with Palestinian faction representatives and Israeli officials to try to prevent a new spiral of violence.

"The Egyptian security delegation told the Israelis it was informed by the Palestinian factions they were ready to respect the truce and not carry on firing rockets and mortars on Israeli positions and towns," said the official.

"The Palestinian factions demanded reciprocal respect of the truce and that it be applied equally to the Gaza Strip and West Bank," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They consider any Israeli attack on Palestinian people in the West Bank an aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," the official said.

Hamas would hold rocket fire "if Israeli incursions and aggressions stop," a spokesman for the radical movement told AFP.

"Rocket fire is a form of resistance invoked to confront the Zionist enemy and its aggressions," Ismail Radwan said.

The armed wing of Hamas, whose political branch is the senior coalition partner in the Palestinian government, on Tuesday said it fired nearly 100 projectiles towards Israel and declared a five-month fragile truce over.

The Islamic group said it was abandoning the truce following Israeli raids that killed nine Palestinians at the weekend.

Meanwhile, a senior UN official appealed Wednesday for calm in the Middle East, saying the rise in tensions between Hamas and Israel should not endanger diplomatic efforts for peace now underway.

"One concern that I have very much is that everybody does exercise restraint," said UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe, after Hamas declared Tuesday an end to its truce with Israel and fired dozens of rockets into the Jewish state.