Pressure is mounting on President Yasser Arafat to carry out government reforms to halt a leadership crisis that many fear could turn into a Palestinian civil war.
The Palestinian parliament voted 43-4 yesterday for a resolution calling on Mr Arafat to accept Prime Minister Ahmed Korei's resignation, and appoint a government that could impose law and order in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Lawmakers are expected to meet again today to discuss ways of bringing more pressure on Mr Arafat to implement the reforms.
Concerns were fuelled by days of unprecedented unrest in Gaza, followed yesterday by the brief kidnapping of a local official in the West Bank city of Nablus and the shooting of a pro-reform critic of Arafat in Ramallah.
Legislator Nabil Amr (57) was shot twice in the leg after returning from a television interview in which he criticised Mr Arafat's performance.
A senior aide said Mr Arafat had signed a decree that would formally condense at least a dozen security agencies to three - as he had already promised to do after violence among rival Palestinian factions erupted in Gaza last week.
International mediators regard such reforms as critical to reducing violence in the Palestinian conflict with Israel and salvaging a "road map" peace plan promising Palestinians a state in the territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was expected to take up the peacemaking issue in talks scheduled with Israeli officials today.
Adding to the crisis, an Israel army helicopter attacked a two-storey building in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza early today which the Israeli army claimed was a weapons workshop operated by Hamas.
The missile strike started a series of explosions and the building burst into flames. One person was treated for light glass cuts at the scene.
Israel rejected a UN General Assembly resolution demanding it implement a world court ruling to tear down a West Bank barrier. Israel says it prevents suicide bombings, and Palestinians view it as a further attempt to seize Palestinian land.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Israel should comply with the non-binding court decision, anyway.
"I think they should heed and pay attention to the court's decision. Even though it is not enforceable, it has some bearing on what they do," Mr Annan told a news conference.