Gaza City, 3 March(AKI) - The Islamist Hamas movement has claimed 'victory', after Israeli forces ended a five-day offensive the Gaza Strip, reportedly leaving at least 115 Palestinians dead and 320 injured since clashes started on Wednesday 27 February.

According to Palestinian news agency Maan, one-third of the victims were children.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday announced peace negotiations with Israel would be suspended "until the aggression has stopped."

"The enemy has been defeated," said a Hamas spokesman while broadcasting a news bulletin picked up by Israel Radio.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International issued a press release condemning the killings of civilians by Israeli armed forces and called again on Palestinian armed groups to immediately cease firing rockets at towns and villages in southern Israel.

Three Israelis - two soldiers and one civilian - have been killed by Palestinian militants in the past five days.

"We condemn all attacks on civilians, but unlawful attacks by one side cannot justify violations by the other," said Malcolm Smart director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"Israel's attacks this week display a degree of disproportion and recklessness which has so often characterised Israeli military attacks in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in recent years," he said.

Italian minister of foreign affairs Massimo D'Alema also called on the Israeli military not to include the 'defenceless' population of Gaza, already in difficulty due the blockade imposed by Israel after the Hamas takeover in June 2007.

"We remember that Auschwitz was a dramatic and irreversible page in the history of humanity," said Fausto Bertinotti, candidate for the upcoming Italian elections and current speaker of parliament.

"But this does not exempt us from speaking fairly against the Israeli government for unleashing their weapons against the Palestinian brothers," according to Italian communist weekly journal La Rinascita.

Bertinotti also expressed his "fury" at the international community and the US for never recognising the Palestinian unity government formed in March 2007.

Israel claims the raids in Gaza are to stop militants from carrying out rocket attacks against Israeli cities. On Sunday, 40 rockets were launched against Israeli towns, mainly Ashkelon and Sderot.

Longer range 'Grad' missiles,reportedly brought to Gaza from Iran, have reached cities such as Ashkelon, marking a significant turning point in the conflict and prompting Israel to respond ever more harshly to attacks by Palestinian militants.

During the Gaza raids, Israeli soldiers Eran Dan-Gur and Staff Sergeant Doron Asulin were killed.