Israel has dismissed a ceasefire call by Yasser Arafat's security adviser as the UN Security Council prepared to vote on a resolution opposing Israeli threats to "remove" the Palestinian president.
"This is not the type of ceasefire which may entice us to change our policy," Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said today.
He called instead on the Palestinians to "take up the fight" against militant groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad that have killed hundreds of Israelis during a three-year-old uprising for statehood.
Lapid told foreign journalists that if the Palestinian Authority does not confront militants, as mandated by a US-backed peace plan battered by recent violence: "we have to do it".
Arafat's national security adviser, Jibril al-Rajoub, had called earlier on Israel to stop "assassinations" of militant leaders, raids and punitive demolitions of homes.
"Given that Israel caused the collapse of the first ceasefire as a result of its continued assassinations, we call for a truce that will be respected by both sides, foremost by Israel, and by the Palestinian factions," Rajoub told journalists.
Militant factions that declared a ceasefire on June 29 cancelled the truce seven weeks later after Israel killed a senior Hamas political leader in a missile strike that followed a suicide bombing which killed 23 people in Jerusalem.
Asked about Rajoub's call, aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon referred to a security cabinet statement last week on Arafat which ruled out a truce as a way to "fight terror".
Accusing Arafat of fomenting violence, an allegation he denies, the Israeli security cabinet announced that Israel would "remove" him as "an obstacle to peace", but did not say when.
Israeli cabinet ministers said options included exiling, isolating or killing Arafat, threats that touched off an international outcry and returned to centre stage a leader who has been largely snubbed by international peace mediators.
A Security Council resolution, drafted by Palestinian UN envoy Nasser al-Kidwa, "demands that Israel, the occupying power, desist from any act of deportation and cease any threat to the safety of the elected president" of the Palestinians.
Palestinian and international officials say Israeli action against Arafat at his compound in Ramallah, a West Bank city under the grip of the Israeli military, could ignite the region and destroy the peace plan.
But the resolution faced a veto by the United States which said it failed to condemn Palestinian "terrorism".
Keeping pressure on militants, Israeli troops shot dead Ahmed Abu Dosh, 24, a senior Islamic Jihad regional commander, in a raid near the West Bank town of Hebron. The army said he was armed and tried to escape.