GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas leaders and thousands of flag-waving supporters declared victory over Israel on Gaza's first day of calm under an Egyptian-brokered truce Thursday, as Israeli officials flew to Cairo for talks on easing a blockade on the battered Palestinian territory.
Eight days of punishing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and a barrage of Hamas rocket fire on Israel ended inconclusively. While Israel said it inflicted heavy damage on the militants, Gaza's Hamas rulers claimed that Israel's decision not to send in ground troops, as it had four years ago, was a sign of a new deterrent power.
"Resistance fighters changed the rules of the game with the occupation (Israel), upset its calculations," Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who attended the rally, said later in a televised speech. "The option of invading Gaza after this victory is gone and will never return."
At the same time, Haniyeh urged Gaza fighters to respect the truce and to "guard this deal as long as Israel respects it."
The mood in Israel was mixed. Some were grateful that quiet had been restored without a ground operation that could have cost the lives of more soldiers. Others - particularly those in southern Israel hit by rockets over the past 13 years - thought the operation was abandoned too quickly.
Thousands of Israeli soldiers who had been sent to the border during the fighting withdrew Thursday, the military said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the offensive's aims of halting Gaza rocket fire and weakening Hamas were achieved. "I know there are citizens who were expecting a harsher response," he said, adding that Israel is prepared to act if the cease-fire is violated.
Nevertheless, the cease-fire raised hopes of a new era between Israel and Hamas.
A senior Israeli official and three aides arrived in Cairo late Thursday and were escorted to Egypt's intelligence headquarters, according to Egyptian airport officials, presumably to hammer out the details of a deal that would include easing a blockade of the territory.
The airport officials declined to be named because they were not authorized to give information to the media.
However, the vague language of the agreement announced Wednesday and deep hostility between the combatants made it far from certain the bloodshed would end or that either side will get everything it wants. Israel seeks an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza, while Hamas wants a complete lifting of the border blockade imposed in 2007, after the militant group's takeover of Gaza.
Israeli officials also made it clear that their position had not warmed toward Hamas, which they view as a terror group aligned with their archenemy Iran and pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state.
"Without a doubt, Israel in the long run won't be able to live with an Iranian proxy on its border," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel's Channel 10. "As long as Hamas continues to incite against Israel and talk about destroying Israel they are not a neighbor that we can suffer in the long run. But everything in its time."
Israel launched its offensive Nov. 14 to halt renewed rocket fire from Gaza, unleashing some 1,500 airstrikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Hamas and other Gaza militants showered Israel with just as many rockets.
The eight days of fighting killed 161 Palestinians, including 71 civilians. Six Israelis, two soldiers and four civilians, were killed and dozens others wounded by rockets fired into residential neighborhoods.
Gazans celebrated the truce after a night of revelry.
"Today is different, the morning coffee tastes different and I feel we are off to a new start," said Ashraf Diaa, a 38-year-old engineer from Gaza City.
Hundreds of masked Hamas fighters appeared in public for the first time since the offensive during a funeral for five of their comrades. The armed men displayed grenade launchers and assault rifles mounted atop more than 100 brand-new pickup trucks.
The latest round of fighting brought the Islamists unprecedented political recognition, with foreign ministers from Turkey and several Arab states visiting - a sharp contrast to Hamas' past isolation.
Israel and the United States, even while formally sticking to a policy of shunning Hamas, also acknowledged its central role by engaging in indirect negotiations with them.
Egypt emerged as the pivotal mediator, raising its stature as a regional power.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi will now have to assume a more direct role as a referee between Israel and Hamas, at a time when he faces many domestic challenges.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and the head of the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group Ramadan Shalah met with Egypt's intelligence chief Thursday as the follow-up talks geared up.
Reaching a deal on a new border arrangement for Gaza would require major concessions from both sides.
Hamas wants both Israel and Egypt to lift all border restrictions. In 2007, Israel and Morsi's pro-Western predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, sealed the territory, banning virtually all travel and trade. Israel eased its restriction somewhat in 2010 in response to international pressure, allowing Gazans to import consumer goods, while barring virtually all exports and travel. Gaza's battered economy recovered slightly, but the ban on exports prevented it from bouncing back fully.
Original Print Headline: Hamas claims victory as truce with Israel holds
Israel says it arrests Tel Aviv bus bomber
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli authorities arrested an Arab Israeli on Thursday on accusations he planted a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv that wounded 27 people and threatened to sabotage efforts to broker a cease-fire to end the fighting in Gaza, police said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man, from the village of Taybeh in Israel, was connected to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups.
A Palestinian militant cell based in the West Bank village of Beit Lakiya sent the man to put a bomb connected to a mobile phone on the Tel Aviv bus Wednesday, Rosenfeld said.
After he planted the bomb, the man, who police declined to identify, left the bus and called his handlers, who remotely detonated the explosive by calling the phone, he said.
"He admitted to carrying out the terrorist attack," Rosenfeld said.
Attacks by Israeli Arabs are rare, though they have happened in the past.
The attack brought back harsh memories of frequent bus bombings during last decade's violent Palestinian uprising.
