Israel, Hamas hold fire for now...................

The sound of explosions and gunfire was absent in the Gaza Strip for the first time 22 days after Israel's ceasefire went into effect at 2 a.m on Sunday.

Israel ceased fire in the coastal enclave after declaring "victory" in its three-week offensive that cost 1,200 Palestinian lives, though Hamas has said it would continue to "resist" as long as Israeli troops remained in Gaza.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak invited European leaders to a hastily-called summit to try to bolster the unilateral truce although Israel had sidestepped Cairo's efforts to achieve a negotiated end to the hostilities with Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a televised address on Saturday that Hamas had been "badly beaten" in the offensive, launched before a February election to end Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel that were undermining support for the governing coalition.

"Conditions have been created whereby the goals set at the launch of the operation have been more than fully achieved," Olmert said.

Gaza's Islamist rulers said they would keep firing rockets at Israel until it withdrew its troops and ended its trade blockade on the coastal enclave.

"These constitute acts of war so this won't mean an end to resistance," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

But there were no reports of rockets fired at Israel in the hours after the ceasefire began, though several were launched shortly after Olmert's announcement.

Olmert said Israel's troops would remain in place and hit back if the Palestinians tried to fight on.

"If our enemies decide the blows they've been dealt are not sufficient and they are interested in continuing the fight, Israel will be prepared for such and feel free to continue to react with force."