News Service from House Harris

MID: Israel and Hamas truce holds on Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY, Jan 19 AFP - A tenuous ceasefire held on Monday in Gaza, where Palestinians dug out from the rubble and Hamas put on a show of defiance vowing to fight on after the Jewish state's deadliest war on the strip.

No air strikes, rockets or fighting was reported by either side for the first time since Israel's massive assault was launched on December 27.

The guns had fallen silent around Gaza after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire from Sunday and Hamas and other militant groups called a week-long truce of their own.

On the ground, the lull saw early efforts at a return to some sort of daily life amid the desolation, AFP reporters said.

Some stores raised their metal shutters and banks opened doors. Hamas police reappeared on the streets and directed traffic at intersections.

Many people were scavenging through rubble to salvage what they could -- clothes, a television, books, tins of food.

Najette Manah, three small children in tow, clutched a box of rice that she found amid the debris of what was her home.

"We don't have homes anymore. I don't have anything anymore," she said.

However, Hamas' armed wing spat defiance at a televised media conference, saying it would rearm and demanding the Jewish state withdraw its forces from the Palestinian enclave by Sunday or face more rocket attacks.

Abu Obeida, masked spokesman for the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, echoed his leader's proclamation that the 22-day operation was a "divine victory" for Hamas.

The movement lost only 48 fighters, the spokesman said, after Israel reported killing more than 500 Hamas members during Operation Cast Lead. He also claimed Israel lost "at least 80 soldiers" in the fighting. The Jewish state listed 10 soldiers killed.

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

Abu Obeida underlined that Hamas' own ceasefire would last only a week unless Israel fully withdrew troops from Gaza.

"We have given the Zionist enemy one week to pull out of the Gaza Strip, failing which we will pursue the resistance," he said.

"Our arsenal of rockets has not been affected and we continued to fire them during the war without interruption. We are still able to launch them and, thanks be to God, our rockets will strike other targets," in Israel.

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

"Let them do what they want. Bringing in weapons for the resistance and making them is our mission and we know full well how to acquire weapons.

"What we lost during this war in terms of military capability is small and we managed to compensate for most of it even before the war ended."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated Hamas on "victory" while at an Arab summit in Kuwait City, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called for Israel to be branded a terrorist state.

"Arabs should declare an unequivocal support for the Palestinian resistance ... I call on the Arab summit to officially declare Israel as a terrorist state for the crime it did in Gaza," Assad said.

"Ceasefire does not mean the end of aggression as the invading forces are still in Gaza."

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah opened the meeting with a call for collective Arab measures and "practical steps to stabilise the ceasefire" while Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced the donation of one billion dollars for the reconstruction of the battered Gaza Strip.

Amid the lull, Israel agreed to let nearly 200 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid into Gaza and to supply 400,000 litres of fuel to the territory, an official said.

A total of 40,000 tonnes of food and medicines had been transported into Gaza since the offensive began, military administration spokesman Major Peter Lerner said.

European leaders who had travelled to Israel after attending a summit in Egypt urged the Jewish state to follow up the ceasefire by completely withdrawing troops and opening the territory's border crossings.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a major international conference to "allow us to establish peace this year."

Israel's decision to call a unilateral ceasefire in its war on Hamas came 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.