GAZA CITY: Hamas yesterday announced it would hold fire for 10 days to allow Israeli troops to get out of the Gaza Strip. Hours later Israeli forces started withdrawing from key positions in the coastal territory and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he wanted the army to withdraw from the strip “as quickly as possible.”

“We are not interested in staying in the Gaza Strip, we want to leave as quickly as possible,” Olmert told a gathering of European leaders who arrived in Jerusalem after attending a summit on Gaza in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

Israel halted its offensive in Gaza early yesterday, saying it had accomplished what it wanted. Israeli tanks were seen rolling out of Gaza, and infantry soldiers walked across the border to Israel, their guns and packs slung over their shoulders.

Hamas officials, in Cairo for talks with Egypt on resolving the 22-day conflict, said the movement was demanding the opening of all Gaza’s border crossings for the entry of “all materials, food, goods and basic needs.”

The group had previously said it would not stop its attacks as long as Israeli soldiers remained in the Gaza Strip.

With no formal deal between the two sides, despite mediation efforts by Egypt, the situation looked much like that before the conflict — an armed standoff and a grim future for 1.5 million people penned inside Gaza by a blockade aimed at punishing Hamas for its rocket fire and ambitions to destroy the Jewish state.

European and Arab leaders attending the Egyptian summit said Israel and the Palestinians must turn the shaky cease-fire into permanent peace that prevents any recurrence of violence.

“We look forward to an end to this sad page. We must not lose hope in peace ... because a just and comprehensive peace is the true guarantee for the security of the region’s peoples,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told a closing news conference.

The participants — the leaders of Britain, the Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Spain and Turkey, along with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon — also promised to press for an end to the blockade which Israel has imposed on Gaza since June 2007.

In Jerusalem, Olmert’s spokesman, Mark Regev, offered hope that the crossings into Gaza would open if the truce persists: “If this cease-fire holds, and I hope it does, you’ll see the crossings open to an enormous amount of humanitarian support.”

Gaza medics took advantage of the halt in the fighting to rush to areas which had been inaccessible, pulling at least 100 bodies from under the rubble, including those of several children. Most bodies were mangled or torn to pieces. The bodies were discovered mostly in the northern towns of Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya.

The discoveries brought the overall death toll since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on Dec. 27 to at least 1,305, the medics said, making it by far the deadliest Israeli offensive ever launched on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians loaded vans and donkey carts with mattresses and ventured out to see what was left of their homes. Bulldozers shoved aside rubble in Gaza City to clear a path for cars. “Everything has been completely destroyed,” said Yahia Karin, 54, as he surveyed the damage in Zeitoun, a Gaza City neighborhood ravaged by furious battles between Israeli ground troops and Hamas fighters.

The Shahadeh family loaded mattresses into the trunk of a car in Gaza City, preparing to return home to Beit Lahiya. “I’ve been told that the devils have left,” said Riyadh Shahadeh, referring to the Israelis. “I’m going back to see how I’m going to start again. I don’t know what happened to my house ... I am going back there with a heart full of fear because I am not sure if the area is secure or not, but I have no other option.”

Hamas congratulated the Palestinians on “victory” from mosque loudspeakers.

Meanwhile, Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair said that the Arab peace initiative was “not dead”. “The Arab peace initiative is not dead unless we make it so,” Blair said in Riyadh, where he held talks with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.

— With input from agencies