Israeli Cabinet votes to halt Gaza offensive

Dubai: Israel's security cabinet voted to cease fire in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, ending a three-week offensive against Hamas.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip had achieved all its objectives.

He told a news conference after the security cabinet voted to cease fire that some goals had been exceeded, Hamas had been hit hard and its ability to fire rockets into Israel had been severely limited.

Earlier in the day, Israeli troops assaulted Gaza from land, air and sea.

Despite weeks of heavy fighting in which more than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed, Hamas vowed to fight on until all Israeli forces withdraw from the battered enclave and open its border crossings.

Israeli warships and tanks, dug in on the outskirts of Gaza City, kept lobbing shells into the densely populated urban area, while to the north in Beit Lahiya a UN-run school was set ablaze by bombs. A woman and a child were killed and another dozen people wounded in the attack, in which burning embers rained down on a school where some 1,600 people were sheltering, setting parts of the building alight.

"This yet again illustrates the tragedy that there is no safe place in Gaza and not even a UN installation is safe," said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency which operates the school. "There is no place to flee."

Hamas leaders in exile have vowed to fight on, but many of the 1.5 million Palestinians enduring incessant bombardment and privation in Gaza seemed desperate for their ordeal to end.

Under the Egypt-brokered ceasefire plan, fighting would stop immediately for 10 days, but Israeli troops would initially remain in Gaza.

The plan also calls for border crossings into the territory to remain closed until security arrangements are made to ensure Hamas fighters do not rearm.

Israel said it is approaching the end of its three-week offensive against Hamas, in a war that has killed more than 1,000 people.