A Palestinian man rests at a United Nations school where he takes shelter following Israeli strikes. (Wissam Nassar, Maan Images)

Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, has announced a unilateral truce in the Gaza Strip.

The announcement came after a meeting of Israel's security council on Saturday evening and halts the 22-day offensive which has left more than 1200 Palestinians dead, more than 400 of them children.

Alan Fisher, Al Jazeera's correspondent on the Gaza-Israel border, said: "What the Israelis are doing by this unilateral declaration is taking all the power into their own hands and they will almost dictate now what happens, and when.

"Ehud Barak [the defence minister] has been quoted ... as saying that Israel has achieved almost all its goals.

"So it would seem that Israel is happy now to call it quits to this operation, believing that it has done all it set out to do.

About 1,230 Gazans have been killed in Gaza since the offensive began, according to UN and Palestinian medical sources.

At least 13 Israelis have died, three of them civilians.

Israel decided on a unilateral ceasefire in preference to entering into an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, analysts said.

The unilateral truce allows Israel to avoid agreeing concessions with the Palestinian group, such as easing the 18-month-old blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has prevented medical aid and basic supplies from reaching the Palestinians.

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