JERUSALEM — After trying for a year to seal off the Gaza Strip and bring down its Hamas rulers, Israel agreed Tuesday to permit a limited flow of goods to and from the Palestinian enclave in exchange for a prolonged halt in rocket fire against Israeli border communities.
The truce, brokered by Egypt and set to take effect Thursday, was greeted by widespread skepticism that it will last. It offers no provision that either the Israeli army or Hamas' well-armed paramilitary units will halt preparations for a large-scale confrontation.
But by striking a deal, Israel and Hamas have signaled a shift in the region's political landscape.
For its part, Israel has made a tacit acknowledgment that the militant Islamic group's grip on Gaza is so strong that the Jewish state can no longer count on a U.S.-backed strategy to drive an avowed enemy from power through isolation.
Instead, Israel negotiated indirectly with Hamas and repeatedly postponed the invasion that its army was preparing for, even in the face of near-daily rocket attacks and civilian clamor for a harsh response.
"Whatever happens to the truce, Hamas has achieved de facto recognition," said Menachem Klein, a former nongovernmental Israeli negotiator. "Israel is acknowledging, in effect, that its blockade has not worked and Hamas is here to stay."
In turn, Hamas showed its willingness to coexist, at least temporarily, alongside the Jewish state. Although the group's charter calls for Israel's destruction, its leaders have said they are willing to pursue a long-term truce in order to build a Palestinian state.
Hamas, a militant offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which emerged in the late 1980s, has observed unilateral and agreed-upon truces with Israel, most recently in November 2006. All broke down within weeks or months.
This is the first such arrangement to include an easing of the blockade, which Israel, the United States and the European Union imposed on Gaza and the West Bank after Hamas' rise to power in parliamentary elections in early 2006.
The West Bank blockade ended after a violent breakup of the Palestinian Authority's power-sharing government a year ago left the secular-led Fatah group in charge there and Hamas ruling Gaza.
