Tens of thousand of Palestinians gather in the West Bank city of Ramallah to mark the fifth death anniversary of their leader Yasser Arafat.

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, who took over as head of the Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after Arafat died in 2004, addressed the crowd, expressing his strong dismay over the illegal Israeli settlement activities.

He also reiterated that he would not enter into peace talks with Tel Aviv until a complete freeze on illegal construction work in the West Bank and Jerusalem Al-Quds.

According to Palestinian sources, nearly 100,000 people gathered in and around the Muqataa presidential compound, the Palestinian Authority headquarters and the site of Arafat's mausoleum.

Arafat died of a mysterious disease in a French hospital on November11, 2004.

The Palestinians accused Israel of poisoning him through the food, drinks or medications that he received when he was under siege in Muqataa. There are also reports suggesting that senior Fatah officials were involved in a US-Israeli plot to assassinate Arafat.

In July, Farouk Qaddumi — head of the PLO political department— accused Abbas and the Fatah movement's former security chief Mohammad Dahlan of collaboration with several US security officials and former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to assassinate Arafat.

The Executive Committee of the PLO, however, dismissed the claim, calling it an Israeli plot to jeopardize the Palestinian cause.

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