Beit Lahiya, Gaza: Forced to abandon his strawberry fields two years ago because of violence along the Israel-Gaza border, Palestinian Tawfiq Gaben hopes an imminent truce could mean a return to working the land.

But he doubts it will last.

Like many Palestinians and Israelis living on the frontline of Israel's conflict with Hamas, Gaben remains suspicious of his enemy and doubtful diplomacy can bridge major differences.

"This is a shaky calm ... impossible to work out," Gaben, 40, said northern Gaza Strip. "Like every other time, Israel will violate the truce and come back to raid and kill."

Gaben abandoned his once fertile fields near Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip two years ago after fighters started firing rockets at Israel from close by. The fields have since been flattened by Israeli army bulldozers, which often clear land during raids into the Hamas-run enclave.

Israel confirmed it had accepted an Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas, but has threatened military action if the ceasefire collapses and voiced scepticism all Palestinian groups will stick to the deal. Core issues, such as the fate of a captured soldier and the possible opening of a key border crossing, have yet to be resolved, deepening doubts.

Farmers on the other side of the fence separating Israel and the Gaza Strip are also torn between hope that a truce will stop the Palestinian mortar bombs and rockets that regularly pound their land, and doubt it will last.

"For me the issue of trust between us and the Palestinians is a very big question - it was broken many times in the last seven years," said David Bing at the Kfar Aza kibbutz, which lies on the border with Gaza and is often targeted by fighters.

Previous truces have collapsed amid mutual recrimination. But Hamas official Abu Zuhri said there was a "Palestinian national consensus" to back the deal and Islamic Jihad said it would not be the ones to disrupt it.