GAZA, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would urge outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to restore calm in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a senior Palestinian official said on Sunday.

    Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an advisor to Abbas, told reporters that Abbas would ask Olmert in their forthcoming meeting scheduled for Monday in Jerusalem to maintain an Egyptian-brokered truce declared effective in June between Israel and Gaza militants.

    "President Abbas would ask Prime Minister Olmert to exert every possible effort to put an end to the deterioration of security in Gaza in order to end the Gaza population suffering," said Abu Rudeineh.

    A wave of violence that erupted less than two weeks ago in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian armed groups, led by Hamas Islamic movement, had left 15 Palestinians dead and strict closure of Gaza Strip commercial crossings.

    "President Abbas calls on all parties to be committed to the truce and to stopping giving the Israeli occupation the excuses to continue its aggression and reinforce the blockade imposed in Gaza," said Abu Rudeineh.

    Since the violence flare-up, the Israeli army and Palestinian militants have plunged into almost daily tit-for-tat attack exchanges and Gaza border crossings with Israel, the coastal enclave's sole gateway for vital goods and fuel -- have remained continuously shut up.

    Israel's strict siege of Gaza has forced the United Nations aid agency to suspend food distribution to 750,000 Gazans, about half of Gaza's total population, and the territory's sole power plant to shut down due to lack of fuel.

    Meanwhile, Fatah movement loyal to President Abbas condemned the recent escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip.

    Fatah said in a statement sent to reporters that "Israel commits daily crimes in Gaza that should immediately stop."

    Fahmi Za'arir, Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, accused Israeli political parties, which would race in the parliamentary elections due in February, of "using the situation in the Gaza Strip in their election campaigns."