JERUSALEM, Dec. 30 - A Palestinian leader who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison vowed Friday that if his associates were elected in Palestinian elections next month, corruption would be snuffed out and honest government installed.

Marwan Barghouti, formerly the head of Fatah in the West Bank, called on Palestinians "to renew their confidence in Fatah and give it another chance" in parliamentary elections on Jan. 25, when it faces a major political challenge from the radical Islamic movement Hamas.

Mr. Barghouti, convicted by an Israeli court for his role in the deaths of four Israelis and a foreigner, is popular among young Palestinians and recently forced Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to alter Fatah's election list to accommodate younger Barghouti allies.

Mr. Barghouti apologized to Palestinians for past mistakes by Fatah and promised that a new government would rebuild the security services, establish law and order, investigate old and new cases of corruption and malfeasance and punish all those responsible, "no matter their rank or position."

His statement, to be published Saturday in the Palestinian press, was obtained by The New York Times from his lawyer.

Mr. Barghouti called on Palestinians to vote, saying the election was "an urgent national necessity" and "a new democratic intifada that will lead to the renewal of the Palestinian political system." He promised to work with Hamas, saying, "Hamas is not an alternative to the Fatah movement, but a partner," adding, "partners in the field, partners in parliament."

He promised Palestinians that the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would soon be followed by similar pullbacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem. "I say with confidence that the moment of ending the occupation is very close," he wrote.

Also on Friday, Islamic Jihad took responsibility for a suicide bombing on Thursday. A bomber blew himself up when stopped at an Israeli checkpoint and killed one Israeli soldier and two other Palestinians, who are believed by the Israelis to have been acting as his driver and his guide.

After silence on Thursday, members of Islamic Jihad announced on loudspeakers on Friday in the West Bank village of Atil, near Tulkarm, that Suhaib Ibrahim Yassin, 19, was the bomber. The Israelis suggest that Mr. Yassin was planning a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv at a Hanukkah party, and early on Friday, the army arrested 10 Palestinians in Atil and nearby Ilar who are suspected of membership in Islamic Jihad.

Islamic Jihad is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, and the bombing was criticized by Palestinian Authority officials, who have urged an end to terrorism against Israel.

According to Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian pollster, 40 percent of Palestinians support attacks on civilians inside Israel and 58 percent oppose them, with 2 percent undecided. Those figures, he said in an interview, have remained stable over the last six months.

In Gaza on Friday, there was more chaos among groups of security forces. About 100 Palestinian policemen took over the Rafah crossing with Egypt to protest the killing of a colleague in a gun battle with a powerful Gaza family, the Hasanins, who wanted relatives released from jail.

The police fired into the air and ordered travelers to leave. European monitors of the crossing, opened on Nov. 25, sought refuge at an Israeli Army base just inside Israel. Several hours later, after the police left, the Europeans returned and reopened the crossing.

In a statement co-signed by a branch of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a Fatah militant group, the police called for the execution of the killers and the resignation of Interior Minister Nasser Youssef and Police Chief Ala Hosni for failing to bring law and order.

The policeman who was killed was Abed al-Rahem Saleh, 20; one of the gunmen was also killed.

In a report issued Friday, the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group said 51 percent of all Palestinian deaths by violence in 2005 had been a result of gunshot wounds received from other Palestinians, up from 5 percent last year. In Gaza alone, the group said, 37 percent of the total gunfire fatalities have taken place since the Israeli pullout was completed in September.

The group called on the Palestinian Authority "to restore the rule of law to the Palestinian territories" and deplored the authority's "irresponsiveness to the civil unrest in Gaza and the West Bank."

Later on Friday, a 14-year-old Palestinian, Fathi Mushtaha, a stall vendor, was killed in a cross-fire between the police and a clan in Gaza City.

Just before midnight on Friday, Palestinian and British officials announced that three Britons had been freed after being kidnapped Wednesday at gunpoint. They are Kate Burton, 25, who has for several years been an aid worker and human rights advocate, and her parents, Hugh and Helen Burton, who had come for a Christmas visit.

British and Palestinian officials in Gaza told Reuters that the Burtons had been released and were in good health. Kamal Sharafi, the Palestinian mediator, provided no details.

Israel continued Friday to shell its self-declared "no go" zone in northern Gaza in an effort to stop Palestinians militants from firing rockets from there into Israel.

Copyright 2005The New York Times Company