An International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman said on Monday
evening that 10 ambulances carrying medical supplies had travelled into
Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south.

Earlier, Israeli spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC:
“Medicines, foodstuffs, energy, all will be reaching the Gaza Strip in
the volume that is required and in an expeditious manner.”

The BBC was unable to verify whether the food and fuel convoys reached Gaza.

Palestinian medical sources say at least 1,300 Palestinians have been
killed and 5,500 injured during the conflict. Thirteen Israelis have
been killed since the offensive began on 27 December.

Israel called a ceasefire on Saturday, saying it had
met its war aims. Hamas later declared its own truce, with one of its
leaders claiming a “great victory” over Israel.

Scrap metal

As the ceasefire continues to hold, Palestinians in Gaza have been returning home to assess the damage.

The BBC’s Christian Fraser travelled to Jabaliya on the northern edge
of Gaza City, where the Israeli tanks first crossed over the border. He
says entire neighbourhoods have disappeared.

He met 67-year-old Fatma Umanim, sitting beside the remains her
collapsed house, her neighbours building a makeshift shelter for her
next to the rubble.

Our correspondent says an industry is growing out of
the destruction in broken wood and scrap metal – Gaza’s poorest
salvaging whatever they can.

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, is planning to
visit Gaza on Tuesday to inspect the damage, but that his trip “could
be subject to change”, Israeli officials said.

The director of operations in Gaza for Unrwa, the UN
relief agency, John Ging, said most important now was how to get basic
supplies into the territory.

“We have a big recovery operation ahead of us,
reconstruction – none of it will be possible of course, on any scale,
until we get crossing points open,” he told the BBC.

Unrwa was keen to reopen its schools, Mr Ging said, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been sheltering.

Quick pullout

Divisions among Arab countries have re-emerged at an Arab League summit
in Kuwait that has been dominated by the crisis in Gaza.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Hamas had invited
the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip by refusing to extend a six-month
truce that expired in December.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad said Arab leaders should adopt a
resolution declaring Israel a terrorist entity, and support what he
called the “Palestinian resistance”.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called
for immediate reconciliation talks among Palestinian factions, along
with parliamentary and presidential elections.

Analysts say Mr Abbas is facing challenges to his
legitimacy, with Hamas claiming his term is over and many of his
supporters angered by criticisms he made of the militant group while it
was under fire from Israel.

Previous talks on a unity government have broken down,
and the two sides remain divided over the timing of possible elections.

 

The league discussed a proposal for a $2bn (£1.3bn) fund for
reconstruction in Gaza, with Saudi King Abdullah saying his country
would donate $1bn.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said
he wanted troops to leave Gaza “as quickly as possible”, and some have
already left.

Anonymous Israeli officials, quoted by AP news agency,
said the withdrawal would be completed before US President-elect Barack
Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday.

But analysts say big questions remain, such as who will
police Gaza’s southern border with Egypt and how much power Hamas still
has.

Hamas has said it would hold fire for a week to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip.

But a spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, Abu Ubaida, said its rocket
capabilities had not been affected by the conflict and that “the enemy
will receive more rockets”.