HAMAS temporarily deployed police on Gaza's border with Israel to prevent incidents that could imperil a fresh truce, sources said, a day after Israel shot and killed one person there.

Security forces "have been deployed along the Gaza Strip border to preserve the implementation of the truce," said the spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry, Islam Shahwan.

"Police were deployed Friday night east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, in order to protect the lives of citizens, victims of Israeli aggression," he added.

Mr Shahwan was referring to Israeli soldiers opening fire on residents of Khouzaa, near Khan Yunis, who approached the border. One person was killed and 19 wounded.

Hamas denounced the event as "the first Israeli violation of the truce," which was agreed to on Wednesday and ended eight days in which 166 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed, saying they would raise the matter with the Egyptian mediators.

Following the latest death, unarmed Hamas police were deployed in the area to prevent access in coordination with Egypt, without the risk of being fired at by Israel.

This was the first time since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 such a move was possible, a source familiar with the matter said.

"Israel asked Egypt to intervene to keep dozens of Palestinians away from the border for fear of deterioration. Members of the Gaza police were dispatched to keep Palestinian farmers away in coordination with Egypt," said the source.

A spokesman for the Israeli army said they were aware of the recent deployment.

In addition, a statement from Gaza premier Ismail Haniya said they were informed by the head of Egyptian intelligence that "under the truce, fishermen would be allowed access up to six nautical miles instead of three."

An Israeli official would not confirm the reported change, but said "it was agreed with the Egyptians that these issues would be discussed in a bilateral dialogue between Israel and Egypt, and that is in fact happening."

Israel also maintains a "buffer zone" of approximately 300 metres in the Gaza Strip along the border, and prevents access to Palestinians under threat of firing.

The earlier shooting did not appear to pose an immediate threat to the Egypt-brokered ceasefire, which called for an end to Gaza rocket fire on Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. The truce came after eight days of cross-border fighting, the bloodiest between Israel and Hamas in four years.

The Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, has urged militant factions to respect the cease-fire. It appeared unlikely Hamas would retaliate for the Friday's shooting because that could jeopardise the militant group's potential gains from the ceasefire deal, such as an easing of restrictions on movement in and out of the Palestinian territory.

Nafez Azzam, a spokesman for Gaza's Islamic Jihad, said the shooting was a violation of the truce and that Egypt was informed.

Overnight, hundreds of Palestinians approached Israel's border fence in several locations in southern Gaza. In the past, Israel's military has barred Palestinians from getting close to the fence, and soldiers opened fire routinely to enforce a no-go zone meant to prevent infiltrations into Israel.

Since the ceasefire, growing numbers of Gazans have entered the no-go zone.

In one incident captured by Associated Press video, several dozen Palestinians, most of them young men, approached the fence, coming close to a group of Israeli soldiers standing on the other side.

Some Palestinians briefly talked to the soldiers, while others appeared to be taunting them with chants of "God is Great" and "Morsi, Morsi," in praise of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, whose mediation led to the truce.

At one point, a soldier shouted in Hebrew, "Go there, before I shoot you," and pointed away from the fence, toward Gaza. The soldier then dropped to one knee, assuming a firing position. Eventually, a burst of automatic fire was heard, but it was not clear whether any of the casualties were from this incident.

Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said a 20-year-old man was killed and 19 people were wounded.

Israel's military said roughly 300 Palestinians approached the security fence at several locations in southern Gaza, tried to damage it and cross into Israel. Soldiers fired warning shots in the air to distance the Palestinians from the fence, but after they refused to move back, troops fired at their legs, the military said. It also said a Palestinian infiltrated into Israel in the course of the unrest, but he was returned to Gaza.

The truce allowed both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step back from the brink of a full-fledged war. Over eight days, Israel's aircraft carried out some 1500 strikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Gaza fighters peppered Israel with roughly the same number of rockets.

In Cairo, Egypt is hosting separate talks with Israeli and Hamas envoys on the next phase of the cease-fire - a new border deal for blockaded Gaza. Hamas demands lifting of all border restrictions, while Israel insists that Hamas must halt weapons smuggling to the territory.

In Israel, a poll showed that about half of Israelis think their government should have continued its military offensive against Hamas.

The independent Maagar Mohot poll released Friday shows 49 per cent of respondents feel Israel should have kept going after squads that fire rockets into Israel. Thirty-one percent supported the government's decision to stop. Twenty per cent had no opinion.

Twenty-nine per cent thought Israel should have sent ground troops to invade Gaza. The poll of 503 respondents had an error margin of 4.5 percentage points.

The same survey showed Mr Netanyahu's Likud Party and electoral partner Israel Beiteinu losing some support, but his hard-line bloc would still able to form the next government. Elections are January. 22.

Meanwhile, Israeli politicians have returned to the campaign trail as the streets of Gaza came back to life after a truce ended eight days of bloodshed, with both sides claiming victory while remaining wary.

In Gaza, streets which had been emptied by Israel's intensive air strikes were once again flooded with honking cars and people getting back to their daily business.

The ruling Hamas movement declared the day to be a public holiday to mark the end of hostilities, announced in Egypt late Wednesday local time by Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr at a news conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

After days and nights cooped up at home, residents were out en masse, traffic clogging the streets as a parade organised by militants saw people waving flags and exchanging handshakes and smiles after a night of celebratory gunfire and fireworks.

"Move it, people! Go, go, go!" one frustrated Hamas policeman shouted in a futile attempt to diffuse a traffic jam, as a coffee vendor threaded his way between the cars.

The clogged streets would have been unthinkable 24 hours earlier, as Israeli missiles fell and Palestinian rockets were launched skywards.

His voice was barely audible over the sounds of honking cars and a nearby celebration organised by militants from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Participants waved the yellow flags of the Brigades and red flags of the PFLP as residents watched from nearby buildings. The mood was palpably joyful, with strangers greeting each other with handshakes and smiles.

Outside the parliament building, thousands gathered for a celebration organised by Hamas, many waving the movement's trademark green flag.

Although it was led by Hamas, the gathering had an unusually non-partisan feel for Gaza, where the movement has often cracked down on displays of support for other Palestinian organisations, including arch-rival Fatah.

Parents carried children with the words "Hamas" in green and "Fatah" in yellow painted onto their cheeks, and some waved the flags of both movements.

Sixty-year-old Yusef Jdeidah was smiling as he watched the scene.

"The thing I'm happiest about is that the Palestinian people seem to be coming together. This, I think, is the best and most beautiful outcome of a terrible war," he said.

Overnight, the UN Security Council urged both sides to respect the hard-won ceasefire deal while hailing Egypt for mediating an end to the bloodshed.

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr today commended Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi for helping broker the ceasefire.

Senator Carr also urged both Israel and the Palestinians to stick to the terms of the truce.

''We've got to acknowledge the steps that Israel and Hamas have taken towards a truce,'' he told reporters in Canberra.

News_Module: Gaza in crisis

Both Israel and Hamas claimed the ceasefire as a victory and warned they would be ready to resume hostilities should the other violate the agreement.

"Israel has failed in all its goals," Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal told reporters in Cairo late on Wednesday. "If you commit, we will commit. If you do not commit, the rifles are in our hands."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Operation Pillar of Defence had dealt a hammer blow to Hamas and other militant groups.

"I said we'd extract high price from terror organisations," he said in a televised address late on Wednesday. "We hit their senior commanders, we destroyed thousands of rockets... and we crushed Hamas's control facilities."

But there was also a warning, spelt out by Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

The ceasefire "could last nine days or nine weeks or more but if it doesn't hold, we know what to do, and of course, we will consider the possibility of resuming our activity if there is any firing or provocations," he told public radio.

In Israel, the tone was far from celebratory. "Trial ceasefire" was the headline in freesheet Israel HaYom, and "Ceasefire in dispute" was the banner on top-selling Yediot Aharonot.

And with just two months until general elections, it was back to the campaign trail for the politicians, many of whom were quick to accuse mr Netanyahu of failing to finish the job and make good on an election pledge to bring down Hamas from his 2009 campaign.

"There is no security for the residents of southern Israel. Deterrence was not restored," said Shaul Mofaz, head of the centre-right Kadima party.

"We shouldn't have stopped the operation at this stage. The ceasefire is a mistake. That is not the way to direct a war against terror," the former defence minister told army radio, predicting the calm "would not hold".

"Is this a strategic achievement for Israel? I hope it is," Labour leader Shelly Yacimovich told the station. "Unfortunately, I am not persuaded that it is."

Yediot Aharonot said the Cairo agreement "will lead to a certain period of quiet in the south" but it was only a matter of time before the border heated up again.

"Ultimately, the only interest that Israel and Hamas share is the current wish for a truce, and the understanding that the countdown has begun for the next round," it said.

During the eight eight-day operation, the army said it hit more than 1500 targets, as Gaza militants fired 1354 rockets over the border, of which 933 struck Israel and another 421 were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

The Hamas-run health ministry said the air strikes killed 163 Palestinians and injured 1235, while in Israel five people, including a soldier, were killed by rocket fire and another 280 injured, army figures showed.

Meanwhile, the army arrested 55 Palestinian "terror operatives" in the West Bank overnight in connection with a series of recent clashes and protests over Israel's Gaza operation.



