Israel pursued diplomatic initiatives to its north and south yesterday amid signs of an imminent prisoner swap with Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shia militia, and hopes that a truce with Hamas, the Islamist movement, would come into force in Gaza this morning.

Another northern Arab neighbour, Syria, welcomed the initiatives and said that it could help to secure talks with Israel. However, opponents of Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, criticised him for pursuing multiple deals in an effort to salvage his own political legacy.

Israeli and Hamas officials confirmed that they would begin a truce this morning. The Egyptian-brokered deal is designed to bring a temporary end to violence that has flared between the two groups for the past year. Mr Olmert conceded however that the initiative may prove short-lived. “What they are calling a ‘calm’ is fragile,” he said.

Israel and Hamas say that a ceasefire will begin at 6am today. If the calm lasts throughout the weekend, Israel will partially lift the blockade that it imposed on the Gaza Strip when Hamas took over the area a year ago.

Meanwhile, Israeli and Lebanese officials said that a prisoner swap was imminent between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. The deal, mediated by a UN-appointed German negotiator, would lead to Hezbollah returning two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 for four Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of about ten Hezbollah fighters. An Israeli official said that the exchange could happen before the end of this month and would herald a new stage in relations between the two countries, which engaged in a 34-day war in the summer of 2006.

Israel is ready to place every issue of contention on the table to reach peace with Lebanon, said an Israeli government official, including a key border dispute over the Shaaba Farms, a small piece of land captured by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Syria voiced its support for the regional developments, suggesting that it could smooth the progress of the indirect negotiations which were renewed between Israel and Syria last month after an eight-year lull.

Though the current talks are being held through Turkish mediators, Mr Olmert and President Assad of Syria, could meet face to face for the first time in the history of the two countries in Paris next month.

A top French presidential aide said yesterday that the two nations could meet when they attend the summit of the Mediterranean Union in France. Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, said that Mr Assad and Shimon Peres, the Israeli President, would be “at the same table”.

Mr Olmert has been criticised by his right-wing rivals, the Likud party, for pursuing multiple diplomatic initiatives in order to secure his own legacy.

There are several serious domestic threats to Mr Olmert’s leadership, including a police investigation into corruption charges. Public support for the Israeli Prime Minister, which has not risen above 40 per cent in the past year, has plummeted in recent months, as Binyamin Netanyahu, the Likud leader, has enjoyed a rise in popularity.

Likud also criticised the terms of the Hamas truce, which it claims is a ploy by the organisation to increase its arms-smuggling network.

Egypt has committed itself as part of the deal to stop the smuggling of arms and weapons from its territory into Gaza, Israeli defence officials said. A US military engineering corps is to aid the Egyptian efforts, the officials said.

If Israel decides that Egyptian anti-smuggling efforts are serious, Hamas, Egypt and European officials will begin talks on opening Gaza’s main gateway, the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Israeli officials said that the opening of Rafah would also hinge on Hamas’s release of Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid in 2006.

“Thursday will be the beginning we hope of a new reality where Israeli citizens in the south will no longer be on the receiving end of continuous rocket attacks. Israel is giving a serious chance to this Egyptian initiative and we want it to succeed,” said Mark Regev, the Israeli government spokesman.

High-ranking Palestinian and Israeli officials voiced scepticism over the delicate issues involved in the truce.

Meir Sheetrit, the Israeli Interior Minister and a member of its Security Cabinet, said that he was “very doubtful” that Hamas could enforce a ceasefire among the militant groups. “The idea is a complete truce — no fire from anyone . . . if there is any violation of the agreement, the Government is free to return to act with full force,” Mr Sheetrit said.

Yesterday, less than 24 hours before the truce was due to go into effect, seven mortars were fired from Gaza, landing in open fields in southern Israel. Those mortars were in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday which killed six Palestinian militants, including Moataz Doghmush, a senior fighter in the Army of Islam, a shadowy armed faction believed to be linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda group. Sami Abu Zuhri, the Hamas spokesman, said he was confident that the numerous militant groups in Gaza would support the accord when the “zero hour” came.

Nafez Azzam, the leader of Islamic Jihad, said that though he had misgivings over the truce, he wished to “bring unity” to the Palestinian people.

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