Deal on Captured Israeli Begins to Look Possible

Sporadic but fierce fighting left at least six Palestinians dead in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, amid the strongest signs yet that an accord might be reached to free a captive Israeli soldier.

Early today, Israeli troops skirmished with Palestinian militants in the neighborhood of Shajaiya, a Hamas stronghold on Gaza City’s eastern edge. No casualties were immediately reported, but it was the first time since the start of the Israeli incursion last week that ground forces had pushed their way so close to the densely populated city.

On Friday, Palestinian militants and Israeli troops exchanged fire in and around Beit Lahiya, which was the scene of heavy fighting a day earlier.

Four people also died of wounds suffered in Thursday’s clashes, Palestinian medical officials said, bringing the death toll from that day of violence to 26 and making it the most lethal day in Gaza in two years. An Israeli soldier was among those slain, and the army said Friday that it was investigating whether he might have been killed by friendly fire.

But even as the sound of airstrikes, tank fire and artillery barrages echoed across northern Gaza, both sides signaled a softening of their positions on the terms for the possible release of the Israeli soldier.

Israel, which had flatly ruled out a release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit, hinted it might be willing after all to consider an indirect deal that would free him first and some Palestinian prisoners later.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said at a business gathering that if Shalit is released and Palestinian militants stop firing rockets into Israel, “Israel, will need to, after some period, release prisoners as a reciprocal gesture.”

Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet domestic security service, also said Israel had determined to its satisfaction that the soldier, captured June 25 in a cross-border raid, was still alive.

The military wing of Hamas, one of three Palestinian factions that claim to be holding Shalit, also said in an e-mail to news organizations that it was seeking an accord.

“We are prepared to arrive at a consensus on an acceptable joint formula ... to end this case,” the message said. Hamas officials verified its authenticity.

Shalit’s capture sparked what has been Israel’s first major incursion into Gaza since Jewish settlers and Israeli troops withdrew from the territory last summer, and it has led to accusations from the ruling Hamas movement that Israel wants to drive it from power.

Israel holds the Hamas government responsible for the soldier’s abduction. The military has rounded up dozens of officials of the Islamist group and bombarded such targets as Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s office and the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, of the opposing Fatah movement, said he hoped an end to the crisis was in sight. Speaking to reporters in Gaza City, he praised Egypt’s mediation efforts and said that nation’s president, Hosni Mubarak, had told him he was all but certain an accord would be reached.

Israel has been coming under increasing international pressure over the humanitarian consequences of its 10-day-old offensive. The European Union issued a statement Friday criticizing the “disproportionate use of force” in Gaza.

Gazans have been enduring sharply curtailed electricity service in the swelter of midsummer since Israel bombarded the territory’s main power plant last week.

In Beit Lahiya, a reeking pool of sewage stretched across a main road after electric pumps stopped working. Nearby, water gushed from broken pipes and was quickly soaked up by the dusty ground.

“There goes the water that we need to drink,” said Aisha Atar, a 49-year-old mother of 11.

At Gaza’s main Shifa hospital, doctors said they were overwhelmed Thursday by the wave of more than 60 wounded people, many of them civilians.

The family of 13-year-old Fathi abu Warda, who had shrapnel wounds in his neck, kept vigil around his narrow cot.

His mother, Anan, said she had sent him out to buy water, but she believed he instead joined youngsters throwing stones at Israeli tanks.

Israel, meanwhile, appeared to be trying to damp public expectations that the Gaza offensive would put an end to the Palestinian rocket attacks.

The Gaza incursion “doesn’t mean there won’t be Kassam fire if we leave tomorrow, or the day after,” the army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, said as he visited troops at a base outside Gaza. “But it does mean that terrorist organizations will pay a high price for every one fired.”

Israel was alarmed this week when militants managed twice to strike the coastal city of Ashkelon, whose center had previously been out of the rockets’ range. Rocket fire by militants has continued over the last two days, even with Israeli tanks and troops close by.

Meanwhile, violence spilled over Friday into the West Bank, where Israeli troops shot and killed a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in a refugee camp near Nablus.

A Palestinian died of wounds suffered a day earlier in the West Bank town of Jenin, where gunfire erupted as Israeli forces tried to seize the territory’s most wanted man, Zakariya Zubeidi. The Al Aqsa commander, implicated in dozens of serious attacks against Israelis, escaped unharmed.