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 programme for government reform.
In the latest West Bank violence, an armed Palestinian infiltrated a Jewish settlement late yesterday, 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 today, Mr 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. Mr 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 Mr 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.