Israel launched its offensive on 27 December to stop Hamas militants firing rockets into Israel.

Palestinian medical sources say at least 1,300 Palestinians were killed
and 5,500 injured during the conflict. Thirteen Israelis were killed.

Aid promise

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.

 

Israeli spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC that medicines, foodstuffs
and energy would reach Gaza “in the volume that is required and in an
expeditious manner”.

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

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.

European Union foreign ministers are due to hold
separate talks later this week with Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Turkey
and the Palestinian Authority to discuss ways to ensure the truce
holds.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has
agreed a plan with top EU officials on how the 27-member bloc could
help keep the ceasefire, German media report.

Scrap metal

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 of 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.

Fatim Aljaru, aged 35, told the BBC that every single
building on her street on the outskirts of Gaza City had been damaged
or destroyed.

She said the home that she had shared with her husband and eight children was now a pile of rubble.

“Just look what they’ve done… we are human beings, how can they treat us this way? What will we do?”

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, is planning to visit Gaza on
Tuesday to inspect the damage but 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.

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

Arab split

Divisions among Arab countries re-emerged at an Arab League summit in Kuwait which was dominated by the crisis in Gaza.

 

Arab divisions over the Gaza crisis have re-emerged at a summit in Kuwait.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Hamas had invited the Israeli
attacks on the Gaza Strip by refusing to extend a truce that expired in
December while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Arab leaders
should adopt a resolution declaring Israel a terrorist entity.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he wants
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 will hold fire for a week to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip.