By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas declared victory after Israelitroops pulled out of the Gaza Strip on Monday following a U.S.appeal to end days of fighting that killed more than 100Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said despite theculmination of the five-day operation, in which two Israelisoldiers were killed, Israel would take further action in theGaza Strip until cross-border rocket fire was cutsignificantly.
The withdrawal came in time for a two-day visit, beginningon Tuesday, by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, adriving force behind peace talks between Israel and thePalestinian Authority that have so far shown little progress.
"The blood of Gaza's children has achieved victory andoccupation will be removed," Hamas's Gaza leader Ismail Haniyehsaid in a statement.
Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip from PalestinianPresident Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in June, vowed tocontinue firing rockets into Israel. It launched one into themain southern city of Ashkelon shortly after the troopswithdrew, wounding one person.
"We are not willing to show tolerance, period. We willrespond," Olmert said in broadcast remarks.
A senior Israeli official said, however, there would be a"two-day interval" for Rice's visit.
Israel had been under pressure from its allies inWashington to halt the violence after Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas suspended U.S.-backed peace talks in protest atthe bloodshed.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 116 Palestinians werekilled in the Gaza offensive. About half of them werecivilians, medics say.
Many of the civilian casualties came when Israeli missilesfired by helicopters, jets and unmanned drones hit buildingsand homes that the army said were being used by militants.
In an air strike on Monday night, an Israeli missile killedone militant and wounded another in the northern Gaza Strip asthey were attempting to launch a rocket at Israel, militantsand medics said. An Israeli army confirmed the strike.
PEACE TALKS
Speaking after the pullout, senior Palestinian negotiatorSaeb Erekat said the talks, which Washington hopes can resultin a statehood deal this year, would remain frozen for now.
"We are working hard to reach a full calm, a full cessationof hostilities. We want to make sure that what happened willnot recur," Erekat said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said talks withRice would focus on events in Gaza and Palestinian leaderswould urge her to press Israel to end military operationsthere.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority are divided over thescope of an agreement. Abbas seeks a full peace accord thatwould enable him to declare a state, while Olmert says the goalis an understanding of "basic principles".
In remarks to reporters, Riyad al-Malki, the Palestinianforeign minister, called for the deployment of an internationalpeacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip and the occupied WestBank.
Such a move did not appear likely soon. Hamas opposes aninternational force.
Addressing his centrist Kadima party, Olmert said he hopedto continue talks with Abbas, but "under no circumstances willwe restrain ourselves in the face of terror from Gaza".
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told foreign diplomatsin Jerusalem, that Hamas's rocket attacks at Israeli citiesamounted to "collective punishment that we will not accept andno government in the world would be willing to accept".
Last Wednesday, an Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket,the first such death since May. Israel's security cabinet plansto meet on Wednesday to consider the next move in Gaza.
In Gaza City, thousands of Hamas supporters celebrated thewithdrawal in the streets and some posed for photos withgunmen.
The Gaza violence touched off anti-Israeli protests in theWest Bank, where a Jewish settler shot dead a 17-year-oldPalestinian on Monday in Ramallah after coming under attack bya crowd of rock-throwers, an Israeli police spokesman said.
After troops withdrew, Gaza municipal workers beganrepairing roads, houses and power lines damaged in thefighting.
In Ashkelon, residents of a penthouse apartment hit by aKatyusha rocket picked through the debris.
Hamas says it fires rockets in self defence, and that itwould stop if Israel halted all military activity in the GazaStrip and the occupied West Bank and ended a Gaza blockade.
Israel says security concerns dictate its actions and thatraids have foiled militants' plans to attack Israelis.
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Dan Williams,Adam Entous and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Ari Rabinovitch inAshkelon; Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Alastair Macdonald;Editing by Alison Williams)
