GAZA CITY, 4 January 2005 — Frontrunner Mahmud Abbas entered the last week of the Palestinian presidential election race yesterday with his challengers out of sight, emphasizing the need for unity as he sought to maximize his vote.

Since his arrival in Gaza on Friday, Abbas has been balancing predictable attacks on Israel with more delicate condemnation of militants who have been firing mortars and rockets on settlements in Gaza and on southern Israel.

Abbas said over the weekend that Israeli offensives into Gaza, which the army said were designed to put a halt to the attacks, amounted to a ploy to disrupt the ballot on Jan. 9.

But he also took a swipe at the people behind the rocket attacks, urging them not “to give Israel more reason to attack us.”

Abbas has been arguing that the use of weapons in the four-year Palestinian uprising has been a mistake but he is also wary of warnings by militants that any direct crackdown could lead to civil war.

“Regardless of our differences, (the spilling of) Palestinian blood should be a red line which should be never crossed,” Abbas said in an address to a women’s organization in Gaza yesterday.

And in another show of solidarity with the militants, Abbas also pledged yesterday that he would not sign a peace deal that does not lead to freedom for all Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.

“We will not agree to sign up to any political accord which does not involve the release of all the prisoners,” Abbas said in a meeting with the parents of some of the 8,000 Palestinians currently held by the Israeli authorities.

“Thousands of Palestinians are behind bars and we will not be silent until they return to their homes, enjoying their liberty and live their lives in dignity,” he added.

His victory is all but assured, with a poll on Sunday showing that he has a 43 point lead over his nearest rival.

The survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 65 percent of people from the West Bank and Gaza Strip intend to vote for Abbas, standing for the dominant Fatah faction, next Sunday.