RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Former Palestinian premier Mahmud Abbas urged Palestinian forces to unite, pledging loyalty to Yasser Arafat, as he moved to the political centre stage with the strongman in hospital.
Abbas spoke after chairing the first Palestine Liberation Organisation executive meeting without Arafat, amid speculation that the Palestinian leadership could fall into chaos should the veteran leader not return.
"We call on all our people and factions to unite and work together in responsible fashion to protect our destiny and homeland," said Abbas, who is standing in as PLO chairman during Arafat's absence.
He wished Arafat a quick recovery and hoped the 75-year-old leader "would soon return to his people and his cause who very much still need him".
Palestinian MPs are to hold an emergency session Sunday to discuss the latest developments, said parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh.
Abbas said the PLO executive committee would hold regular meetings with all Palestinian factions, including Islamists, to guarantee national unity and that contact would be maintained with Arafat.
Analysts had seen the meeting as an attempt to reassure the world and the Palestinians of a smooth transition of power in Arafat's absence.
Symbolically, the iconic leader's chair was left empty.
Abbas sat to the right, with current prime minister Ahmed Qorei, who is handling the day-to-day affairs of the Palestinian Authority, to the left.
Ziad Amr, a former minister under Abbas, had expressed doubt that the PLO would be able to prevent a "constitutional void" in Arafat's absence.
Independent specialists have suggested that Arafat's symptoms could signal an advanced stage of cancer, but a definitive diagnosis was unlikely for several days, a Palestinian representative in Paris, Leila Shahid, told journalists.
Jibril Rajoub, a security advisor to Arafat, told Al-Jazeera television that cancer had been ruled out.
It is the first time in almost three years that Arafat, who has become a symbol of the Palestinian struggle for statehood, has left his West Bank base, a sign of the gravity of his condition.
Back in the West Bank, Palestinian schoolboy Brahim Kamel was shot by Israeli soldiers in the neck in the northern town of Jenin, where Palestinian security sources said the army has been waging a four-day operation.
His death raised the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian intifada to 4,539 people killed, including 3,508 Palestinians and 957 Israelis, according to an AFP count.
An army spokesman said Israeli units had come under attack from hundreds of demonstrators throwing stones and Molotov cocktails in part of the town.
Two other Palestinians -- one in a critical condition -- were hospitalized with gunshot wounds in the southern Gaza Strip, hospital sources said.
An Israeli military source said troops had opened fire on four suspects east of Gaza City and two were hit.
Overnight, an Israeli security guard at a petrol station near the Pesagot settlement, west of Ramallah, was wounded by three armed Palestinians, military sources said.
10/30/2004 - 14:18 GMT - AFP