The Palestinians accused Israel of working to destroy the Palestinian Authority after a raid on a West Bank prison that boosted acting premier Ehud Olmert's prospects of re-election.
The controversial siege and capture of six militants has underscored the weakness of beleaguered Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas who has been increasingly isolated following Hamas's landslide election win in January.
Acting Prime Minister Olmert and his centrist Kadima party, on the other hand, have savoured boosted approval ratings in the wake of the raid, 12 days before a general election he is tipped to win.
‘What happened in Jericho and the crimes against the Palestinian people... is a pre-planned scheme to destroy the Palestinian Authority. This is the basis of Israeli policy,’ Erakat told reporters amid continued fury over the raid.
Olmert has avoided significant international criticism over the capture of the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ahmed Saadat, the alleged mastermind of the 2001 killing of an Israeli cabinet minister.
‘The international community continues to deal with Israel even though it is a state above the law,’ Erakat told reporters.
‘All acts of Israel aim to destroy the Palestinian Authority,’ he added.
Erakat spoke after the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation discussed Saadat's capture, held Britian and the United States responsible and called on them to work with Israel to return the militants.
‘We decided to call the United States and United Kingdom to put pressure on Israel to return the people who were kidnapped to the Palestinian Authority,’ PLO committee member Saleh Rafat told AFP.
The executive committee will contact the UN secretary general and other international organisations to put pressure on Israel to release them.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, number three on Kadima's list, turned the screws on Abbas, alias Abu Mazen, saying the Palestinian leader only had himself to blame for his weakened standing.
‘The only one responsible for Abu Mazen's status is Abu Mazen. It doesn't always have to do with Israel,’ she told reporters.
‘Abu Mazen and his status depend among other things on his actions or failures, and in this case we are dealing with failure on his part,’ she said.
Israel's top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper and tabloid rival Maariv said Kadima was set to win 39 of the 120 seats in parliament, up two from the last poll projections.
The centre-left opposition Labour party would win 19 or 20 seats while the right-wing Likud party should secure 15, the surveys found.
Public radio put Kadima's luck even higher at 43 seats, with Likud languishing in second place with 16 seats and Labour in third with 14.
Thursday's surveys mark a reverse in fortunes for Kadima whose support had been slowly eroding over the last five weeks amid speculation over corruption charges.
Yet observers have also warned the short-term advantage could rapidly evaporate if the raid served as a trigger to an upsurge of anti-Israeli attacks which could have less rosy consequences on Kadima's election prospects.
An Israeli soldier was killed during clashes in the northern West Bank town of Jenin as five Palestinian militants were arrested.
Two Israeli civilians were also shot and wounded by Palestinian gunmen in the the Nablus area of the northern West Bank, military sources said.
The unveiling of a Palestinian government led by Hamas -- poised to present its cabinet -- could also impact on the results of the Israeli election.
Salah al-Bardawil, a spokesman for the now dominant radical Islamist faction said Abbas's Fatah movement, which dominated parliament until it was trounced by Hamas in January, would not join the government.
Hamas officially has until March 28 -- the same day as the Israeli election -- to win approval for its government line-up from parliament and Abbas.