Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza after sweep

updated 7:36 p.m. ET March 3, 2008

JEBALYA, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops withdrew from northern Gaza on Monday, but Israel’s leaders warned that a broad offensive against Islamic militants would continue as Israeli airstrikes and Palestinian rocket attacks persisted into the night.

Hamas proclaimed the Israeli pullback a victory for its fighters. Yet, while defiant in public, the movement’s leaders signaled they were trying to work out a truce after nearly a week of escalating combat.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said peace talks with moderate Palestinians should go on despite the latest violence in the Gaza Strip. The West Bank-based administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said talks would stay suspended during fighting.

On the eve of a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.S. officials called for a quick resumption of negotiations.

Rice said Monday night that a deal to end the six-decade Israel-Palestinian conflict is still possible before President Bush leaves office despite the recent violence.

“I’m hopeful that we can get through this current situation and get back to negotiations,” she said as she headed to the Middle East for two days of shuttle diplomacy in Israel, Egypt and the West Bank.

Rice’s trip amounted to a rescue mission, trying to keep Palestinians and Israelis talking despite open warfare that engulfed the Gaza Strip.

She defined a deal as a framework for an eventual Palestinian state, not a final agreement that resolves all the issues between both sides.

Israel pulls out
Israel’s army withdrew its infantry and tanks from the Gaza town of Jebaliya early Monday after more than two days of fighting, leaving a swath of destruction. Roads had been plowed up, cars crushed by tanks and electric poles toppled.

“There’s no word to describe this horrible scene. I can say nothing but that God is greater than the aggressors, and God is going to avenge us,” said Sami Asliyeh, who lost two female teenage cousins when a shell struck the family home Saturday.

Israeli troops moved into Jebaliya late Friday as part of a major offensive in response to rocket fire by the Islamic militants of Hamas, which seized control in Gaza last June after five days of fighting with Abbas’ supporters.

Recent rocket fire has reached as far as Ashkelon, 11 miles north of Gaza, suddenly putting the city of 120,000 people under daily attack.

'Will continue to act'
Olmert stressed that the offensive would continue.

“We are acting and we will continue to act in a way that is painful and effective, that will bring maximum results in terms of halting terror,” he told members of his Kadima Party.

Fighting in Gaza has killed 121 Palestinians and three Israelis since Wednesday, one of the bloodiest spates of violence in more than seven years of clashes. Palestinian medical officials and the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said at least half the dead were civilians.

Despite the lopsided toll, Hamas claimed victory, and 20,000 supporters joined a celebration in Gaza City. A symbolic contingent of 10 Hamas militants marched with assault rifles and grenade launchers as the crowd waved green Hamas flags.

Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar threatened to strike even deeper into Israel if the offensive resumed. “The battle and confrontation will continue and will expand even further than it has reached,” he told the crowd.

But despite the public defiance, Zahar told reporters Hamas was pursuing a cease-fire through an unidentified third party — most likely Egypt. He stressed, however, that Hamas would continue to train its men and develop weapons even under a truce.

Israeli leaders have been reluctant to seek cease-fires, arguing Hamas would use any lull to regroup and rearm. But recent opinion polls say roughly two-thirds of Israelis support truce talks, and a growing number of Israeli leaders have said the government should consider the idea.

Late Monday, an Israeli missile struck militants firing rockets from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing one man, Palestinian officials said. A second strike in the same area caused no casualties, they said.

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