Israel said yesterday it accepted an Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas Islamists ruling the Gaza Strip but voiced scepticism the ceasefire involving all Palestinian militant groups in the territory would hold.

"What they are calling a 'calm' is fragile and likely to be short-lived," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a speech ahead of the planned start of the truce at 0300 GMT today.

He said Israel would "go forward in implementing this calm" but that its military was readying its response should Palestinian rocket attacks continue. Frequent Israeli raids into the Gaza Strip have failed to halt the salvoes.

Cross-border violence persisted yesterday. Around 30 rockets and 10 mortar bombs fired from Gaza hit Israel, but caused no serious casualties, the military said. Israeli air strikes against rocket crews from the Islamist Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees factions wounded several gunmen.

Western officials said Israel, which has sharply cut supplies to the territory since the Hamas takeover last June, planned to allow in a slightly higher number of truckloads of goods starting on Sunday, provided the truce was still in place.

"We hope this means no more rockets will be fired by Hamas at innocent Israelis as well as lead to a better atmosphere for talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh voiced confidence all Palestinian factions would respect the truce out of a sense of "national responsibility".

But Meir Sheetrit, Israel's interior minister and a member of its security Cabinet, said he was "very sceptical" Hamas could enforce a ceasefire among the militant groups.

The truce does not cover the occupied West Bank. But Abu Hamza, a spokesman for the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said the group reserved the right to respond with force "even from Gaza" to any Israeli raids in the West Bank.