JERUSALEM, Israel – Senior Israeli Cabinet ministers yesterday approved the release of 900 Palestinian Arab prisoners and the handover of the West Bank town of Jericho to Palestinian Arab control in coming days – gestures meant to build goodwill ahead of next week’s Middle East summit.

The Palestinian Arabs had hoped for broader concessions that could bolster Palestinian Arab support for newly elected leader Mahmoud Abbas’s peace efforts. Regardless, both sides said they remained hopeful the summit in Egypt next week would produce a cease-fire declaration to formally end more than four years of fighting.

In new violence yesterday, two terrorist attacks – one in Gaza and one in the West Bank – wounded six Israeli soldiers and left one of the Palestinian Arab attackers dead.

A joint declaration to end the violence is one of the first requirements in the internationally backed “road map” peace plan, which was launched with great hopes at a summit in Jordan in 2003 but quickly stalled amid continued attacks. The “road map,” a phased peace plan, calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state this year.

Mr. Sharon told his security Cabinet it is still premature to talk about restarting road map negotiations.

“We are not talking about peace now, and not about the road map, but rather about phases that come before the implementation of the road map,” Mr. Sharon said, according to participants in yesterday’s meeting.

Israeli officials say Mr. Sharon does not want to begin new peace talks now, fearing they will interfere with his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements this summer.

A meeting yesterday night between Mr. Sharon’s aide Dov Weisglass and Palestinian Arab negotiator Saeb Erekat exposed deep differences in expectations for the summit, according to Israeli officials.

Palestinian Arabs said they wanted it to be the beginning of a new political process to end the conflict; Israel wants the summit only to deal with security issues, the officials said.

Palestinian Arabs also wanted more extensive goodwill gestures from Israel, including a wider prisoner release and Israeli withdrawal from more towns, Palestinian Arab officials said.

Israeli government spokesman David Baker said the Israeli concessions were made “despite scores of terror-related incidents in Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority has not made one meaningful arrest.”

Participants at the security Cabinet meeting said 500 prisoners would be released shortly after Tuesday’s summit. The remaining 400 prisoners would be freed within three months.

Mr. Abbas has made the release of the 7,000 Palestinian Arab prisoners held by Israel a top priority. Upon news of the planned release, he voiced hope that senior prisoners would be among those freed. The Palestinian Arabs have criticized past Israeli releases, saying they were insufficient and often included Palestinian Arabs whose terms were nearly over.

“We don’t know the real figures and what kind of prisoners they are going to release. But what we are interested in is that the first round be a big one and include a lot of prisoners, particularly those who have served long prison terms,” Mr. Abbas said in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

A member of Israel’s security Cabinet, Haim Ramon, said those to be released have sentences ranging from less than a year to three or four years, and none were involved in attacks on Israelis. Israeli hawks criticized the release, but Mr. Ramon said it was necessary to build Palestinian Arab support for Mr. Abbas and prevent a new “cycle of blood.”

The decision to withdraw only from Jericho also fell short of expectations that Israel would approve a pullout from five West Bank towns. Israel decided earlier this week to slow the planned troop pullout after a brief flare-up of violence.

Meanwhile, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said yesterday that fugitives in his Palestinian Arab terrorist group would not sign pledges to halt attacks because that would negate the legitimacy of their right to fight the Israeli occupation.

Mr. Mashaal, in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials ahead of the summit next week, also denied any links to the Qaeda terrorist network or Iraqi insurgents, saying Hamas is “a nationalist liberation movement” limiting its operations against the Israeli occupation.

“Our battle is inside Palestine with the Israeli occupation. We have no relation with what’s going on in Iraq. But we are, like all Arabs and Muslims, supporting the Iraqi people’s right to resist the American occupation,” Mr. Mashaal said.