GAZA (Reuters):
ISRAELI AIRCRAFT and tanks killed seven Palestinians in clashes with gunmen across the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, drawing European Union (EU) accusations that the Jewish state was using excessive force.
In a possible attempt to find a way out of the crisis, an Israeli Cabinet minister suggested Palestinian prisoners might be released as a "goodwill gesture" if militants first freed a captured soldier and ended rocket attacks.
The governing Hamas Islamist movement rejected the apparent overture, but said for the first time that Corporal Gilad Shalit was alive, and demanded negotiations for his release.
The EU accused Israel of "disproportionate use of force", a day after 20 Palestinians and one soldier were killed in the bloodiest day of fighting since 2004.
The army has pushed deep into northern Gaza, taking over ruined Jewish settlements that Israel abandoned last year, in an offensive to bring home Shalit and end rocket attacks.
The incursion has piled pressure on the Hamas government, already reeling from a Western aid embargo. Any lingering hope peace talks could be revived has been dashed by the bloodshed.
Among Friday's violence in which medics said militants and civilians were killed, an air strike in northern Gaza killed two gunmen. The army said it had targeted armed men.
