Hamas holds rallies; cease-fire looks shaky

updated 6:22 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2009

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Waving green Islamic flags atop the ruins of Gaza, Hamas proclaimed victory in rallies attended by thousands of supporters Tuesday, saying it survived Israel's military onslaught despite the destruction and massive death toll suffered by Gazans.

Beyond its fiery words, however, Hamas offered no plans for rebuilding Gaza, which suffered some $2 billion in damage during three weeks of fighting. Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt, largely sealed since the Islamic militants seized power 19 months ago, remain closed and are unlikely to open unless the militants relinquish some control.

Israel has also claimed victory, but neither side was the clear winner.

The fighting killed some 1,300 Gazans, the vast majority civilians, and thousands of Palestinian homes were destroyed. Israel emerged from the war with relatively few casualties — 13 dead, including 10 soldiers — but halted fire before reaching its objectives. No internationally backed truce deal is yet in place to prevent Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel or arms smuggling into Gaza.

Israel had withdrawn the bulk of its forces from Gaza by Tuesday evening, coinciding with the inauguration in Washington of Barack Obama as president. However, the temporary cease-fire remained shaky. Israel's air force struck a Gaza mortar squad after it shelled Israel, the military said.

Hamas held more than a dozen victory rallies across Gaza, choosing bombed-out buildings as backdrops to underscore its message of defiance and its claim to have survived battle against a vastly more powerful enemy.

Addressing a crowd near Gaza City's demolished parliament building, Ismail Radwan, a Hamas leader, declared: "Hamas today is more powerful." Nearby, militants held up a huge banner proclaiming in Hebrew: "Hamas is victorious. Israel has been defeated."

U.N. chief tours area
A few hundred yards away, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon toured the local U.N. headquarters, inspecting damage from an Israeli shelling attack last week. It hit three warehouses where flour, oil and other food rations for Gaza's needy were stored.

Piles of rice, beans and medicine still smoldered Tuesday, sending white smoke into the air. Ban said he felt "utter frustration, utter anger" over the shelling of the compound and two U.N. schools, and demanded a full investigation. As he spoke, the buzz of Israeli unmanned aircraft could be heard overhead.

Israel has said troops responded to fire from militants from the areas, a claim the U.N. has vehemently denied.

During a tour, Ban was told that hundreds of tons of food and medicine were destroyed. "It's totally outrageous and unacceptable," he said, shaking his head.

He later visited the Israeli border town of Sderot, a frequent target of Hamas rockets and expressed sympathy with residents.

"You live every day with a threat of a rocket falling from the sky. No human being can live in a state like this," Ban said. "I expect basic humanitarian law to protect civilian life to be respected and restored and not violated as Hamas has done."

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights has reported that 156 militants were killed in the fighting, including 48 from Hamas, 34 from Islamic Jihad and the rest from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and smaller factions.

However, a Gaza Health Ministry official who also keeps track of casualties, Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, said he believes Hamas and other militant groups have not reported all their dead fighters. Hamas leaders have not spoken publicly about the number of fighters killed so as not to hurt militants' morale. Hamas commands about 20,000 armed men.

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