The tens of thousands of Palestinians who burst out of Gaza into Egypt this week in search of food, fuel and medicine have temporarily broken the siege that had tightened like a noose around this teeming territory ever since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip last June.

Like the lid coming off a pressure cooker, the blown-up border fence has avoided a bigger explosion – for now. But Gaza’s humanitarian disaster and conflict shows every sign it could escalate into war if it is not brought under control.

That would put paid to any chance current efforts to resurrect peace negotiations might succeed.

The breach in the Rafah crossing may well be the work of Hamas, the Islamist party that now controls Gaza, to dramatise the plight of the population and put pressure on Egypt to intercede with Israel and the US. It follows Israel’s tightening of the blockade, in response to the continuing barrage of primitive rockets aimed at the Negev town of Sderot from north-west Gaza. Last weekend Gaza’s power went off after Israel suspended fuel supplies.

This siege is not only wrong; it is almost wholly counterproductive.

First, Israel’s tactic of “collective punishment” is illegal. Targeting a civilian population is prohibited by international law: there is no debate to be had about it.

Second, however, two decades of using this tactic, in the occupied ter- ritories and in Lebanon, should have taught Israel that it does not work. It actually strengthens organisations such as Hamas and Hizbollah.

Indeed, this siege is visibly increasing Gazans’ dependence on Hamas as the only source of the means of subsistence.

It is time that Israel, its Arab neighbours such as Jordan and Egypt, the US and the Fatah nationalists they are all backing against Hamas rethought their position.

Their attempt to isolate and topple Hamas after its 2006 election victory – which included arming Fatah warlords in Gaza – has failed.

Arab and international mediators should immediately seek an armistice from Hamas and an end to the Gaza blockade from Israel.

They should then seek to revive the year-old Hamas and Fatah unity agreement and set up a joint caretaker government prior to eventual new elections. The Islamists should be brought into talks – on condition they are ready to work for a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza with east Jerusalem as its capital. Only when that is achieved should Hamas, and all Arab countries, be required to recognise Israel – an Israel with fixed borders, not the moving frontiers it keeps pushing into occupied Palestinian land.