Hamas claims Gaza "victory" as troops pull back
Israeli troops pulled out of the Gaza Strip on Monday after a U.S. appeal to end days of fighting that killed more than 100 Palestinians and rescue peace talks.
Israel kills 12 Palestinians in Gaza raidThe Hamas Islamists who control the coastal enclave declared "victory" and vowed to continue firing rockets into Israel, launching one into the main southern city of Ashkelon shortly after the troops withdrew. No one was hurt.
A senior Israeli government official said the conflict had entered a "two-day interval" for a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
She is to hold talks in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday and Wednesday on moving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations forward. Washington hopes a Palestinian statehood deal can be reached this year.
"This very limited (Gaza) operation was intended to show Hamas what could happen, what you may call a 'prequel'," the Israeli official said.
"If they decide they've seen enough and stop the rockets, if they get the message, then we may get into a period of quiet. If they continue to fire the rockets, then there will be more operations like this one or worse," the official said.
Israel had been under pressure from its ally in Washington to halt the violence after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended U.S.-backed peace talks in protest at the bloodshed.
"The enemy has been defeated," a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing said, as Gaza residents streamed out of homes where they had been trapped for the past five days by heavy fighting.
Medical workers and Hamas said about half of the 112 Palestinians killed in the Israeli offensive were civilians.
Many of the civilian casualties came when Israeli missiles fired by helicopters, jets and unmanned drones hit buildings and homes that the army said were used by militants.
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