Hamas, Israel hold fire as Gazans reel at war’s toll

Israeli forces were pulling out of the Gaza Strip on Monday following a tentative truce with Hamas that allowed Palestinians to take stock of the devastating three-week war.

Hamas, Israel hold fire as Gazans reel at war's toll

Israeli forces were pulling out of the Gaza Strip on Monday following a tentative truce with Hamas that allowed Palestinians to take stock of the devastating three-week war.

Military officials said troops and tanks that had poured into Gaza on January 3, as part of an offensive to counter Palestinian rocket attacks were gradually leaving, though they remained ready to tackle any flare-ups in fighting.

Israel and Hamas separately declared ceasefires on Sunday, to the relief of Western powers that, while publicly sympathetic to the Jewish state's security concerns, were alarmed by the mounting humanitarian toll in the impoverished territory.

The crisis clouded the last days of the Bush administration. It spelled Middle East challenges that US President-elect Barack Obama, who is to be sworn in on Tuesday, may find no less insurmountable than those faced by his predecessors.

As Palestinians emerged from hiding, agape at the killing of more than 1,300 fellow Gazans and at the widespread destruction of homes and government infrastructure, the head of the Hamas administration claimed a 'popular victory' against Israel.

"The enemy has failed to achieve its goals," Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech.

Hamas's truce decision, conditioned on Israel withdrawing within a week, was 'wise and responsible,' he said.

Israel launched its air, ground and sea assault on December 27 vowing to 'change the reality' for southern border towns that, since 2001, had taken fire from Hamas and other Palestinian factions armed with mostly improvised short-range rockets.

Though there were sporadic salvoes on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the mission accomplished - noting a flurry of diplomatic efforts by the United States, Egypt and European countries to prevent Hamas rearming.

That would mean as yet unspecified measures to stop Hamas smuggling weapons across the Egypt-Gaza frontier, a sensitive matter given Cairo's past efforts to play down its scope.

For now, Gaza's situation looks much as it did before the conflict -- armed standoff and a dim future for the 1.5 million people fenced inside the strip by a blockade aimed at punishing Islamist Hamas for rocket fire and ambitions to destroy Israel.

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