Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged militants on Saturday to halt attacks on Israel and return to a ceasefire that has been splintered by violence a month before Israel's planned pullout from Gaza.

Abbas also blamed Israel for the near collapse of the five-month truce, and called on the Jewish state to help preserve the ceasefire announced during a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in February.

The Palestinian president's appeals came amid escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence and vows of revenge by the Islamist group Hamas over the killing of seven of its gunmen, including four killed by air strikes in Gaza.

"I call upon all factions and parties to declare their commitment to what we have agreed upon ... the commitment to calm," he said in a speech broadcast on Palestinian television.

"We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the results of this policy, which represents a step backward from our understandings and undermine chances of preserving calm," he added. "No one should expect the calm to be one-sided."

The surge of violence, the worst since February, has raised the prospect of a disruption to Israel's planned withdrawal and pullout of Jewish settlers from occupied Gaza next month.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arranged an unscheduled visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories next week to try to keep the Gaza withdrawal on track. Washington sees it as a possible springboard to renewed peace talks.

Israel said it had to take action because Abbas, struggling to keep control in the face of a growing challenge by militants, had failed to rein in armed groups.

A suicide bomber killed five Israelis in a coastal town on Tuesday. Israel responded by raiding the West Bank town of Tulkarm and the city of Nablus, killing a policeman and a militant. Militants replied with rocket and mortar strikes, killing an Israeli woman on Thursday.

Abbas said he would not tolerate any further violations by Palestinian militants. But he promised not to allow any further internal fighting like the gunbattles in recent days between Hamas gunmen and Palestinian police trying to prevent continuing volleys of rocket and mortar fire at Israeli targets.

"Palestinian blood is holy and shedding it is a red line," Abbas said of the clashes that killed two teenagers and raised fears among Palestinians of civil war.

Source: CD/Agencies