WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama indicated on Sunday that the next 48 hours would be crucial for preventing an Israeli ground offensive into Gaza but Palestinian militants must stop their rocket attacks first.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke over the weekend with President Obama, indicated that he was prepared for a comprehensive ceasefire if the rocket fire from Gaza stopped.

Egypt, which is trying to mediate a peaceful solution, also held out hopes that a ceasefire could be reached soon. An Arab League delegation plans to visit Gaza on Tuesday.

President Obama, who is facing his first major Arab-Israeli crisis since he came to power in 2008, explained how he was using his influence to prevent an Israeli ground offensive while urging Arab and Muslim leaders to use their influence to stop the rocket attacks.

According to a transcript released by the White House, President Obama asked Palestinians and their supporters to realise that if the fighting escalated, a two-state solution would be “pushed off way into the future”.

Mr Obama said he had had several conversations with Israeli, Egyptian and Turkish leaders since the current crisis began and his message to all of them was that Palestinian rocket attacks into Israel must stop. “If that can be accomplished without a ramping-up of military activity in Gaza, that’s preferable; that’s not just preferable for the people of Gaza, it’s also preferable for Israelis,” he said. President Obama also outlined the argument he was using to persuade Israel not to enter Gaza. “If Israeli troops are in Gaza, they’re much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded,” he said.

Putting a timeline for the success of his efforts for peace, the US president said: “We’re going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48 hours.”

Mr Obama said he had told Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey that those who championed the cause of the Palestinians “should recognise that if we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza, then the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future”.

Mr Obama strongly defended Israel’s right to retaliate to rocket attacks. “There’s no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders,” he said. “So we are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on people’s homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians. And we will continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself.”

President Obama rejected the argument that the Arab Spring had encouraged Palestinian militants to escalate their conflict with Israel.

“Let’s just remember that the exact same situation arose just a couple of years ago, before the Arab Spring,” he said. The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians had been going on for several decades now, he said. Stressing the need to work for a two-state solution, Mr Obama said that “there are no shortcuts to the hard work of trying to bring about what I think is the best option — two states living side by side in peace and security”.