The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Gaza City

A fragile truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas came into force in the Gaza Strip on Thursday amid scepticism over how long the Egyptian-brokered deal would hold.

The six-month truce is the first formal ceasefire since Hamas's bloody takeover of the impoverished territory just over a year ago which triggered a crippling Israel blockade against what it brands a "hostile entity."

But underscoring the fragility of the deal, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire targeting rocket launchers in Gaza City just minutes before the truce started and on Wednesday, the two sides traded a barrage of fire. "Hamas is determined to respect the truce and guarantee its success," its spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said after the ceasefire took hold at 0300 GMT.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said the Jewish state "will respect all the commitments it made," but added: "We will keep our eyes wide open over what's hapening on the ground."

As well a halt to militant rocket fire and Israeli strikes on Gaza, the deal calls for Israel to progressively ease its blockade of the overcrowded strip of land where most of the 1.5 million population depend on aid. Olmert, whose government boycotts Hamas as a terrorist outfit, warned on Wednesday that the ceasefire would be "fragile" and could be "short-lived". "If terror continues, Israel will have to work to remove the threat," he said, describing Hamas as "despicable, bloodthirsty terrorists who have not changed."

The Egyptian-brokered deal was concluded after months of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel, which had been mulling a wider military offensive in Gaza in a bid to halt rocket fire.

It also came seven months after Israel-Palestinian peace talks peace talks were revived at a US conference in November, although they have made little visible progress in part because of the Gaza violence and Jewish settlement activity.

At least 516 people have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting since November, most of them Gaza militants. Since Hamas seized Gaza in June last year, four people in Israel have been killed by rocket fire.

World leaders welcomed the truce news but Israelis and Palestinians were wary.