Israel's leading ultra-Orthodox blocs have thrown their support behind hardliner Mr Ariel Sharon, lending the front-runner an additional boost in this week's election for prime minister.
Today was the final day of official campaigning, and Mr Sharon holds a seemingly invincible lead of up to 20 percentage points over the beleaguered incumbent, Mr Ehud Barak, according to opinion polls.
The ultra-Orthodox community makes up about 9 per cent of Israel's voters and tend to vote in blocs based on the choice of their religious leadership.
Mr Sharon also received backing from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party which draws its membership mostly from Sephardic Jews of Middle Eastern origin.
In his weekly sermon last night, Ovadiah Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas party, called on followers to support Mr Sharon. Shas is the third largest party in Israel's parliament.
Mr Sharon denied that he made promises to the ultra-Orthodox establishment in return for their support. "There is no agreement and nothing was promised," Mr Sharon said in a statement.
Mr Barak, meanwhile, has taken a beating in public opinion over his unsuccessful peace efforts and concerns that he was overly generous in land compromises to the Palestinians.
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Barak: trailing in the polls
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Mr Barak's campaign denounced what it said was Sharon's alleged deal with the ultra-Orthodox. Barak confidante, lawmaker Ofir Pines, said such dealings smacked of "religious coercion".
Mr Barak, speaking at a cabinet meeting today, made a last-ditch overture to Israeli Arabs, a sizeable minority who have threatened to boycott elections.
Their leadership has called for voters to stay home on Tuesday in protest of the shooting deaths of 13 Israeli Arabs by Israeli police during protests in October.
"In my name and the name of the government I express deep sorrow over the deaths of the Arab citizens. During protests, even illegal protests, Israeli citizens should not be killed," Mr Barak told cabinet ministers.
Mr Barak received overwhelming support in the 1999 election from Israel's Arab citizens, who account for close to 20 per cent of the country's population.
Meanwhile dozens of Palestinians, many of them children, were left homeless on Sunday after the Israeli army destroyed six houses near a frequent troublespot in the Gaza Strip, witnesses said.
Israeli bulldozers, backed by tanks and soldiers, moved in before dawn and razed the houses along with two petrol stations and a workshop between the Jewish settlement of Netzazrim and the Karni crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, they said.
"They forced us out of our homes and threw out our furniture into the rain before starting the demolitions," said Hussein Thabet, whose house was among those destroyed.
He said 64 people, including five brothers and their wives and children, had been made homeless.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment.
Over the past week, four Palestinians have been killed at Karni, east of Gaza City, as unrest in the region has spiked up ahead of Tuesday's election.
AP/Reuters/