Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has urged Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israeli civilians ahead of an Israeli election which could change the course of more than two years of conflict.
In a Palestinian cabinet statement released today, Mr Arafat was quoted as saying he rejected "all acts of violence that target Palestinian and Israeli civilians".
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Mr Arafat's comments coincided with a funding scandal which has severely cut support for right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Likud party, prompting speculation the hawkish leader's hold on power was not as inevitable as had seemed.
"Attacks against Israeli civilians have severely harmed our cause in the international arena and in Israeli public opinion," the Palestinian cabinet statement said. "As the Israeli election date (January 28th) is getting closer, we appeal to all our people to practice self-restraint."
Mr Arafat has repeatedly called on militant groups to halt suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians in a 27-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation, but previous efforts at a ceasefire have failed.
Israel accuses the Palestinian leader of involvement in funding and encouraging the violence, a charge he denies.
Palestinian officials have said that suicide bombings in the uprising have given Mr Sharon a pretext for pursuing even harsher military measures to quell the revolt and enlarged support for the Israeli right wing which opposes Palestinian statehood.
In the Gaza Strip, a 17-year-old Palestinian was killed today, apparently as he prepared a homemade grenade. Local residents said he was a member of Islamic Jihad.
The Likud's projected lead in the upcoming election began to slip last month as its ranks were roiled by allegations of vote-buying and ties to organized crime during a party primary to choose its list of candidates.
But its popularity appears to have plummeted this week after the left-wing Israeli daily Haaretzbroke the story of a probe into a $1.5 million loan to Mr Sharon's son from a South African businessman to pay back funds from the leader's 1999 campaign.
Israeli law bans political funding from abroad. But Mr Sharon denied any wrongdoing regarding the loan and accused his rival, Mr Amram Mitzna of the center-left Labor Party, of fomenting "vicious gossip" about him and his family for political gain.
Before the dual scandals plaguing the Likud broke, the party was expected to grow to parliament's largest, with up to 41 seats in the 120-member assembly. But weekend opinion polls now forecast the Likud winning 27 to 30 seats, a much smaller lead over Labor, which is predicted to win as many as 24 seats.