For the first time in three weeks a fragile peace prevailed in the shattered Gaza Strip yesterday, after Hamas responded to Israel’s unilateral ceasefire by announcing a week-long truce of its own.

The Palestinian group fired at least 15 rockets and mortars into southern Israel to show that it had not been crushed. It then gave Israel seven days to withdraw its forces and open Gaza’s border crossings to allow in desperately needed humanitarian aid.

Some Israeli troops did leave Gaza, giving victory signs to the television cameras, but they were a fraction of the total deployment.

As the fighting subsided, the scale of the destruction became apparent. Rescue teams pulled nearly 100 bodies from the rubble of previously inaccessible areas, taking the Palestinian death toll to more than 1,200 — half of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis have been killed, all but three of them soldiers.

The Palestinian Authority said that 4,000 homes, 48 government offices, 30 police stations and 20 mosques had been destroyed, along with many utilities, roads and schools, and that 14 per cent of Gaza’s buildings had been damaged.

The UN Relief and Works Agency said that 53 of its schools, clinics, warehouses and other installations in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed, many by direct hits.

Gordon Brown attended a hastily convened summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday, chaired by President Mubarak of Egypt and President Sarkozy of France. Also attending were Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, and senior politicians from Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Jordan.

The Prime Minister told reporters on his flight to Egypt that Israel should allow humanitarian workers full access to Gaza and said that Britain had pledged an additional £20 million in aid. In an apparent criticism of the scale of the Israeli response to the Hamas rocket attacks, Mr Brown said that too many innocent people had died in the 22-day assault on Gaza.

Egypt agreed to organise an international donors’ conference to rebuild Gaza. Following America’s lead, the European countries promised technical, military and diplomatic measures to address Israel’s key demand – that the smuggling of weapons to Hamas through tunnels beneath Gaza’s nine-mile border with Egypt be stopped.

Mr Brown said that British naval vessels would help to intercept weapons from countries such as Iran.

Last night the European representatives flew on to Israel to meet Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister.

“The Israelis must clearly indicate that as long as there is an end to the rocket firing the army must leave Gaza,” Mr Sarkozy said.

Around the Hamas stronghold of Zeitun, rows of homes have been levelled by Israeli tanks and bulldozers. Citrus orchards have been flattened and workshops wrecked. Cars and trucks lie upside down and roads are blocked by debris and electric cables. “It’s like being hit by a tsunami,” said Mustafa Kozad, 57, a mechanic.

Ahmad Said, 73, who said that the Israeli offensive had strengthened support for Hamas, said: “I can’t believe what’s happened. These people are like the Nazis. They’re doing to us what was done to them by the Germans.”

Mohammed Abu Hamaid, 30, agreed. “I’m full of hatred for these savages,” he said of the Israelis. “I wish I had a camera to take pictures of this destruction. Then I could show them to my children so they would never forget it and seek to avenge it.”

The Israeli security Cabinet approved the ceasefire by seven votes to two on Saturday night. Mr Olmert said that Israeli troops would stay in Gaza until Hamas’s response became clear.

Israel was keen to call a halt to the fighting before the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States tomorrow.

Mr Olmert argued that Operation Cast Lead had seriously weakened Hamas and sent a powerful warning to Iran, Hezbollah and other regional enemies not to meddle with Israel.

Some Israelis, however, complained that Egypt had given no guarantee that it would stop the smuggling, and that Hamas remained in control of Gaza with hundreds of rockets, thousands of fighters and many of its smuggling tunnels still intact.

Israel has also failed to secure the release of Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier who was captured by Gazan militants in 2006.

Watershed weekend

January 17

— The Israeli security Cabinet votes in favour of a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, to begin at 2am the following day

— A United Nations official calls for a war crimes investigation after the deaths of two children, aged 5 and 7, in the Gazan town of Beit Lahiya. They died when an Israeli shell struck a three-storey building

January 18

— Hamas fires at least 15 rockets into Israel

— The Israelis respond with two airstrikes

— Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’s deputy leader, declares a one-week ceasefire, but Israeli authorities report sporadic rocket attacks

— Israeli troops begin withdrawing from Gaza

— Egypt hosts summit of European and Arab leaders to co-ordinate policy on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Hamas announces week-long ceasefire in Gaza – Times Online