Hamas says only 48 fighters slain in Israel war

Hamas's armed wing said on Monday it lost only 48 fighters during Israel's 22-day operation in Gaza and vowed to fight on unless the Jewish state withdrew its forces from the Palestinian enclave.

"We announce to our people the martyrdom of 48 Qassam fighters," Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a televised press conference.

Israel reported killing more than 500 Hamas members during Operation Cast Lead which it launched on Gaza on December 27 and ended on Sunday with a ceasefire.

Gaza medics said a total of more than 1,300 Palestinians have died.

Abu Obeida also claimed that Israel lost "at least 80 soldiers" in the fighting. The Jewish state listed 10 soldiers killed.

The spokesman repeated the "victory" cry declared by Hamas leaders on Sunday as the guns fell silent and underlined that Hamas' own ceasefire would only last a week unless Israel fully withdrew troops from Gaza.

The Islamist movement's capacity to fire rockets into Israel had not been reduced, he added. One of Israel's main aims during the offensive was to stop rocket attacks.

Israel's efforts, backed by the United States and European leaders, to prevent Hamas from re-arming, would also fail, Abu Obeida said.

Israel had failed to achieve "any of the objectives it had set for the war ... and only killed hundreds of children, women and old people."

Second night of calm

Meanwhile Gaza enjoyed a second night of calm on Monday as Israeli troops began withdrawing after their deadly 22-day onslaught in the battered territory was halted by a fragile ceasefire deal that allowed Palestinians to take stock of the devastating three-week war.

Military officials said troops and tanks that had poured into Gaza on Jan. 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 U.S. 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.

"God has granted us a great victory, not for one faction, or party, or area, but for our entire people," said Ismael Haniya, Hamas' prime minister, in a televised address.

"The enemy has failed to achieve its goals," 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 Dec. 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.

God has granted us a great victory, not for one faction, or party, or area, but for our entire people

Ismael Haniya

A fragile truce

After exchanges of gunfire and an air strike punctured what Olmert acknowledged was a "fragile" unilateral ceasefire, Gaza fighters announced a one-week truce of their own.

"(We) demand that enemy forces withdraw in a week and open all the border crossings to permit the entry of humanitarian aid and basic goods," Moussa Abu Marzuk, deputy leader of Hamas's politburo, said in Damascus.

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 Hamas for rocket fire into Israel.

Israel's decision to call a unilateral ceasefire in its war on Hamas came about after it won pledges from Washington and Cairo to help prevent arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip -- a task in which Europe has also pledged to help.

Top leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency, attended a dinner in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert late on Sunday after earlier participating in a summit in Egypt aimed at shoring up the truce.

A senior Israeli official said Olmert had thanked them for their support for Israel's concerns and had urged them to make good on pledges to halt the flow of arms into Gaza.

Egypt held separate talks with Hamas, and President Hosni Mubarak announced plans to host an international aid conference to help rebuild Gaza.

Cairo has also invited Israeli and Palestinian officials for separate meetings on Thursday to discuss an Egyptian initiative for an extended truce, state news agency MENA reported.

Humanitarian needs

According to the Palestinian Statistics Bureau, some 4,000 residential buildings were reduced to rubble during the conflict. Western diplomats have said it could cost at least $1.6 billion to repair the infrastructure damage in Gaza.

Hamas officials, during talks with Egyptian mediators, said the faction demanded the opening of all Gaza's border crossings for the entry of materials, food, goods and basic needs

In Israel, which lost 10 troops in combat and three civilians to rocket attacks, the offensive was popular and bolstered the prospects of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak before a Feb. 10 election.

Yet opinion polls still predict an easy win for right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who had opposed Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza after 38 years of occupation, arguing that it would embolden hard-line Palestinian Islamists.

Though much of the international community shuns Hamas, it has strong grassroots support and Gaza's suffering threatened to sap the credibility of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his efforts to negotiate peace with Israel.

"The goal remains a durable and fully respected ceasefire that will lead to stabilization and normalization in Gaza," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

A spokeswoman for Obama said he welcomed the Gaza truce and would say more about the Gaza situation after he is inaugurated.