It has been nearly a week since Israel unilaterally declared its ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, after a 22-day onslaught that left almost 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. On January 17, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his army would halt the bombing and eventually pull its troops out of Gaza on condition that Hamas halt the rockets. If they did not, he said Israel would immediately respond.

The night before the ceasefire was announced, at least seven people were killed in Gaza after Israeli warplanes and tanks fired several shells, including shells containing white phosphorous. Hours after the ceasefire was supposedly meant to go into effect, two Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli fire. And for the first time in over three weeks, Palestinian rescue teams and distraught families began searching for the missing. A total of 100 corpses were pulled from under the rubble of destroyed buildings on January 18 alone.

That day, Hamas independently announced its own ceasefire along with several other Palestinian factions responsible for firing rockets at Israel. Deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said the Gaza invasion had ended in "the people's victory" rather than the victory of any specific faction. Haniyeh also called for the opening of the way for national conciliation, saying that the victory in Gaza had offered that opportunity.

In Cairo where he was holding talks with the Egyptian President, President Abbas said the Israeli ceasefire was positive but "not enough." He demanded the opening of the borders and a lifting of the siege on the Strip. In the Sharm Al Sheikh summit, Palestinian ambassador to Egypt Nabil Amr said the government would demand international troops inside Gaza to protect the Palestinian people there.

In Gaza, meanwhile, the reconstruction efforts are just beginning. Palestinian estimates put the rebuilding costs at $1.9 billion, given the vast devastation resulting from the Israeli operation there. So far, international agencies are focused on getting emergency humanitarian aid into the Strip for the beleaguered people, which is proving harder than expected.

On January 22, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)Under Secretary General John Holmes visited Gaza to assess the damage. He said his agency wants to bring in emergency aid to Gaza as quickly and efficiently as possible and in a "non-political" way, but that they were finding it difficult given Israel's restrictions. He said, at present, 100 to 120 trucks full of goods were coming through the Kerem Shalom crossing every day but that Gaza requires a minimum of 500-600 trucks of goods a day to function "normally".

Israel has placed severe restrictions on the entry of goods into Gaza and has already banned a number of building materials from the Strip that are necessary to the reconstruction process.

The Arabs, who held two summits in the course of the 22-day Israeli campaign in addition to the Sharm Al Sheikh summit which included Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, were unable to come to a final decision on how to disburse funds to the Palestinians.

On January 20, the Arab Economic Summit in Kuwait, which was also turned into a Gaza session, came to its conclusion without a unified Arab position. The leaders failed to agree on tangible mechanisms for Gaza's reconstruction, among other issues. In drafting the final statement, differences arose when Qatar and Syria voiced their demand to add the Doha summit points to the statement. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Faisal reportedly walked out of the hall in protest. In the end, the statement mandated Arab foreign ministers and the Arab League to continue with discussions over Gaza's financial assistance and Palestinian reconciliation talks. Saudi Arabia had earlier pledged $1 billion to Gaza but has yet to agree on how and to whom the funds will be disbursed.

Since the ceasefires were declared earlier in the week, several Palestinians have died, mostly from wounds sustained during the Israeli incursion. In addition to two Palestinians shot by Israeli navy ships the day following the ceasefire, nine Palestinians have died and dozens of bodies have been pulled from under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Mohammed Hamdan from Khazaa died on January 23 in a Saudi hospital from wounds he sustained on January 13. Five Gazans died in Egyptian hospitals earlier in the week and three died on January 19.

The situation is equally grim for those who managed to stay alive. Over 5,000 people were injured in Israel's onslaught, many of whom now lie in Gaza's under-equipped and overcrowded hospitals. On January 23, a 12-member delegation of Palestinian-Israeli physicians from Doctors for Human Rights visited Gaza's hospitals. They warned that many of the wounded would die from their wounds because of the severe shortage of medical equipment and supplies. The overcrowding of the hospitals and the unattended garbage and dead animals strewn along Gaza's streets also posed the risk of contamination, they said.

Furthermore, according to UNRWA's operations officer in Gaza, John Gingh, Israel has succeeded in destroying the infrastructure of any future Palestinian state rather than the infrastructure of Hamas. Gingh, who has been particularly verbal about Israel's attacks on UNRWA installations, said those responsible for this destruction must be determined and held responsible.

Another verbal UN official to make critical statements against Israel's operation is Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. On January 22, Falk, who was recently banned from entry into Israel, said there was "evidence that Israel committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip", calling for an independent inquiry. Falk said all Gazan residents could be considered casualties given the "mental anguish" they suffered, adding that there was "compelling evidence that Israel's actions in Gaza violated international humanitarian law and required an independent investigation into whether they amounted to war crimes."

Israel's alleged use of depleted uranium and white phosphorus bombs are also being looked into by international agencies including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Across the Atlantic, Barak Obama made history on January 20 when he became the first black president of the United States. Obama was inaugurated as the US's 44th president in front of approximately two million people on Washington DC's famed Capitol Hill. Obama got straight down to business during his first day as President, making his first call to a foreign leader,Palestinian President Abbas. He promised Abbas to work towards a "durable" peace in the Middle East and reiterated that Abbas' government was a "partner".

On January 22, Obama appointed former US Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to the position of Special Envoy for Middle East Peace. Mitchell is most known for forging the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland in 1998. He was also commissioned to draft a report on the Palestinian-Israeli eruption of violence in 2000, which resulted in the Mitchell Report. Mitchell will reportedly be traveling to the region this week to begin negotiations with key regional players. Both the PA and Israel welcomed his appointment. "I don't underestimate the difficulty of this assignment," Mitchell said after his appointment, adding that he still believed a two-state solution could be found.

In Gaza, a peaceful solution seems far away. Even UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was surprised at what he saw during a visit to the Gaza Strip on January 19. He called the destruction there "outrageous, shocking and heartbreaking". The Secretary General called for an investigation into Israel's bombing of UN buildings, including UNRWA-run schools and an UNRWA warehouse. To the Palestinians, Ban said the only way out was national unity.

On that note, a delegation of senior Hamas leaders met in Cairo on January 23 to resume ceasefire talks and discussions of a potential prisoner exchange with Israel. Hamas also said reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fateh would be addressed.