Israeli troops head out of devastated Gaza with Hamas claiming victory

More Israeli forces left the Gaza Strip yesterday after a 22-day assault on Hamas militants, and both sides kept a ceasefire, allowing dazed Palestinians to survey the destruction and mourn their dead.

In Jabalya refugee camp, the scene of heavy fighting, not a house was unscathed. Huge piles of uncollected garbage rotted on street corners. Children scavenged for empty plastic bottles.

Israeli political sources said most troops would be out of Gaza by today - and that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was expected to visit the coastal enclave the same day.

Mr Ban, on a Middle East tour, would be the first world figure to go to Gaza since Israel halted its devastating offensive on Sunday. He would also visit southern Israel, the officials said.

A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, his face masked by a chequered Arab scarf, vowed it would replenish its arsenal of rockets and other weapons, in defiance of any Israeli or international efforts to cut off smuggling routes.

"Do whatever you want, bringing in and manufacturing the holy weapons is our mission, and we know how to acquire weapons," the spokesman, Abu Ubaida, told a news conference.

Israel and Hamas separately declared ceasefires on Sunday, the Islamist group demanding an Israeli pullout within a week.

Troops and tanks poured into Gaza on January 3 to try to quell Hamas rocket attacks after a week-long Israeli air campaign.

Mr Ban has said he would like to go to Gaza before returning to New York this week, provided security there had improved. UN officials did not immediately confirm whether he would go today.

Bulldozers cleared rubble from streets and the Palestinian statistics bureau put the total repair bill at €1.447 billion.

A Hamas official said 5,000 homes, 16 government buildings and 20 mosques were destroyed and 20,000 houses damaged. Israel has said militants used mosques as weapons depots.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah pledged $1 billion for rebuilding. Israel reopened three border crossings to allow more basic goods to reach the territory of 1.5 million Palestinians.

Palestinians emerged from hiding, shocked at the killing of more than 1,300 fellow residents of Gaza and at the widespread destruction of homes and government infrastructure.

"We want a solution that would guarantee Israeli tanks do not return to kill us," said Yehya Aziz, a 22-year-old Gazan.

Gaza medical officials said the Palestinian death toll included at least 700 civilians. Israel, which accused Hamas of endangering non-combatants by operating in densely populated areas, said hundreds of gunmen were among the dead.

According to figures released by Hamas and other militant groups, 112 of their fighters and 180 Hamas policemen were killed. Israel put its dead at 10 soldiers and three civilians.

Western powers had pushed for a ceasefire. While publicly sympathetic to Israel's security concerns, they had voiced alarm at mounting civilian casualties and hardship in the Gaza Strip.

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 today, may find no less insurmountable than those faced by his predecessors.

Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Gaza-based Hamas administration, claimed a "popular victory" against Israel. In a speech, he called Hamas's ceasefire decision "wise and responsible".

Abu Ubaida, speaking on behalf of Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said "all options would be open" if Israel did not meet the group's pullout deadline.

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.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declared the mission accomplished, noting diplomatic efforts by the United States, Egypt and European nations 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.

Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter threatened a military response to any renewed flow of arms into Gaza, saying Israel would view such smuggling as an attack on its territory.