A SIX-YEAR-OLD Palestinian girl, her mother and elder brother were killed in a house on the edge of Gaza City last night, shortly after a stray Israeli missile targeting militants struck a residential area.

The girl, identified as Rawan Hajaj, was taken to hospital wrapped in blankets, the back of her head shorn open. Six others were injured when what Palestinians described as an artillery shell hit the house.

The Israeli military, initially denying that any shells had been fired, later admitted a missile had missed its target in an open field and landed on a street in the Shajaya district on the outskirts of the city, near the Karni border crossing.

As the death toll in Gaza rose, attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis triggered by the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier were foundering over Syria’s ambitions to exploit the confrontation for its own gain.

Egyptian negotiators attempting to broker a compromise between Israel and Hamas, the hardline Islamic party, have been frustrated by the intransigent stance taken by Bashar Assad, the Syrian president.

The Israeli army showed its strength in this battle of wills, in which Gaza is a pawn, as dozens of tanks moved further into the territory near the Karni crossing point east of Gaza City, supported by helicopters.

At least two Palestinians died in skirmishes with Israeli forces and the beleaguered Hamas government called for a ceasefire, the first sign that it might be willing to reach a compromise.

The Israeli army said it had withdrawn forces that entered the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday as part of its offensive to free its captured soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, 19.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, rejected the ceasefire offer, signalling that he will not agree to a truce until the soldier is freed.

General Omar Suleiman, the head of Egyptian intelligence, was in Damascus at the weekend. But his talks appeared to have reached stalemate.

Syria is crucial to the outcome because it is the home of Khaled Masha’al, the exiled leader of Hamas, and other senior Hamas leaders who are regarded as beholden to Assad.

According to Palestinian sources, Masha’al plotted the capture of Shalit, who was seized by Palestinian militants.

It was the fulfilment of many statements Masha’al has made that the only way to win the release of Palestinian prisoners was to capture an Israeli soldier and bargain with his life.

Hamas has said it will free the soldier only in return for the release of Palestinian women and children in Israeli jails.

Assad has the upper hand over Masha’al because the Hamas leader needs the sanctuary of Damascus for the activities that give him power, such as raising money from sympathetic Islamic states such as Iran.

Senior Palestinians believe that while Masha’al was “running the show” when Shalit was first seized, Assad is now the real power to be dealt with, despite his denial of any role.

According to a senior Palestinian source, Masha’al bypassed the Hamas leadership — Ibrahim Haniya, elected prime minister six months ago, and Mahmoud Zahar, the foreign minister and Hamas strongman — and instead dealt directly with Hamas’s military wing to mount the hostage taking.

Masha’al, the source said, feared the “inside leadership” was about to break with his rejectionist stance and compromise on Hamas’s refusal to recognise Israel or lay down arms.

While diplomatic efforts continued behind the scenes, Israel was demonstrating that it could dominate all parts of Gaza in its hunt for Shalit. It pulled its forces out of the northern Gaza Strip after three days of fighting that left more than 40 Palestinians dead. One Israeli soldier also died.

Most Palestinians in Gaza support the demand that Palestinian prisoners, in particular women and youths under 18, be returned in exchange for the captive Israeli soldier.

The case of 15-year-old Hibah Yaghmour may help to explain why. She was convicted of disobeying a soldier’s order and using physical force as she tried to enter a mosque.

According to the girl’s family, when the soldier tried to search her she pushed him and ran away. He shot her three times. When Hibah came out of a coma and went on trial, a female Israeli soldier who witnessed the incident agreed the teenager, then 14, had asked for a woman to conduct the search.

“She felt humiliated,” said Hibah’s father, a middle-class businessman. “She did not want a man to touch her.” She is now in Tel Mond prison, serving an 18-month sentence.

Another prisoner, Shereen Sheikh Kalil, was 18 when she was jailed for eight years after being linked to a gang who had kidnapped another Israeli soldier. Now 21, she has written in letters home of how the mice and cockroaches horrify her.

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