Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat renewed his mid-December appeal for a ceasefire on Thursday, just hours before Israeli Prime Minister Sharon was due to address his people on the latest explosion of violence.
"I repeat my commitment to the ceasefire, and to the Tenet report that outlined a ceasefire," Arafat said, referring to the truce plan drawn up last June by CIA chief George Tenet.
He made the comments just two hours before Sharon was due to make an address to the Israeli nation outlining his plan to tackle the sudden escalation in the 17-month-old Palestinian uprising, or intifada.
The heightened level of violence has cost the lives of almost 70 Palestinians and Israelis in the past week.
On December 16, Arafat made a televised national appeal in Arabic calling for an end to all attacks on Israel.
The appeal reduced violence dramatically for several weeks before breaking down spectacularly this month in one of the biggest upsurges of killing in the intifada.
Arafat also pledged to try the suspected killers of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi whose arrest was announced earlier on Thursday. But he said that he would not bow to demands to hand them over to Israel.
"No one has the right to make demands of us, because we will try them in our court in accordance with our commitments," he said.
Three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were arrested in connection with the murder, the PFLP said on Thursday, demanding they be released. Bureau Report