Advisors to Yasser Arafat announced this morning that the PLO leader will deliver an important speech today to mark the end of the religious month of Ramadan. PLO officials originally said that Arafat will call on Arabs to lay down their arms and end all warfare with the State of Israel. The same aides later changed their announcement and are now saying that the thrust of the Arafat declaration would be a call to Arabs \"to maintain the ceasefire with Israel.\" But, diplomatic sources in Israel are no longer relating seriously to announcements by Yasser Arafat. “In the last year alone, Arafat has made many declarations which remained just that declarations,” says one Israeli leader in response to reports of the televised Arafat statement at 6:00 PM. Israeli government officials are saying that they will judge Arafat by his actions, not by his words.



The PLO announced today that it had closed down Hamas offices in various locations.