Palestinian President Yasser Arafat linked the holding of new Palestinian elections with an Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands in a move that could delay a sought-after program for government reform.
In the latest West Bank violence, an armed Palestinian infiltrated a Jewish settlement late on Friday, wounding one settler before being shot dead.
Israeli forces meanwhile pushed into the battle-scarred Jenin refugee camp, returning to the scene of the fiercest fighting in Israel's recent West Bank offensive, and a second camp near Nablus.
Palestinian sources said two Palestinian boys were killed in the raids.
Israeli army and police said the Palestinian infiltrator entered the Beit El settlement near the Palestinian-ruled city of Ramallah, wounding the settlement's security officer who then shot the attacker dead.
Settlers have been a frequent target of Palestinian militants in their 19-month-old uprising against occupation in a bid to drive them off lands the Palestinians seek for a state.
Earlier on Friday, Arafat cast doubt over the date of future Palestinian elections, saying a ballot could be held "as soon as we will finish this occupation (of) our land."
It was not immediately clear whether he was referring to a complete end to Israel's decades-old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Arafat raised the possibility of new elections -- last held in 1996 -- earlier this week along with reforms and Palestinian lawmakers said they should take place by early 2003.
A Palestinian official, asked to clarify Arafat's remarks, said the condition for holding elections was a more limited Israeli army withdrawal from all positions it had occupied since the start of the uprising in September 2000.
MUTED RESPONSE
Arafat's condition met with a muted response from some Palestinians who have urged new elections and reforms of the Palestinian Authority.
Israel has made an overhaul of Palestinian institutions a precondition for returning to peace talks.
It was not clear whether Arafat's condition was a retreat from his pledge on Wednesday that new elections would be held as part of reforms in his Palestinian Authority which Israel, the United States and many of his own people have demanded.
Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Shaath later told Reuters "the president meant (no elections) until Israel pulls out its occupation forces to where they had been before September 29, 2000" -- the date the current uprising erupted.
At least 1,357 Palestinians and 474 Israelis have died in the uprising.
A committee of Palestinian lawmakers urged Arafat on Thursday to authorize local, general and presidential elections by early 2003 and slim down his government in the interim.
In a statement on Friday, the committee published its official recommendations, which also include putting Palestinian security services under supervision of a central authority and establishing an independent judiciary.
Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said Arafat was drawing international attention to Israel's stranglehold on Palestinian territories where army checkpoints block free travel.
Palestinian legislators "set a timeframe for the elections in the declaration we are working on but we need the proper conditions which require an Israeli withdrawal," she said.
Israeli forces have encircled Palestinian cities in the West Bank and set up checkpoints across Palestinian territories which they say are meant to prevent attacks on Israelis. Palestinians have branded it collective punishment.
(China Daily May 18, 2002)
