ERUSALEM, Aug. 15 — A senior lieutenant to Yasir Arafat said today that the militant Hamas organization had blocked all efforts in recent days to forge a unified Palestinian stand on suicide attacks and statehood.

"To our regret, Hamas thwarted every plan," the Palestinian Authority cabinet minister, Nabil Shaath, told the Voice of Palestine radio. But he said the effort to form a united front would continue.

Also today, the Palestinian finance minister, Salam Fayad, said he had formed a fund to oversee all money handled by the Palestinian Authority, in response to pressure on the leadership to clean up its finances.

Central elements of the unity platform that has been debated in Gaza by 13 Palestinian factions were to have been an end to terror attacks inside Israel and a call for a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli state.

But Israeli and Palestinian reports said Hamas, a militant Islamic movement, refused to abandon its call for a single Palestinian Islamic state, eliminating Israel. Spokesmen for Hamas and another radical group, Islamic Jihad, declared they would not quit attacks inside Israel.

At the same time, Hamas has not publicly rejected the entire draft platform, which also calls for a united Palestinian leadership.

The Palestinian Authority of Mr. Arafat has been under strong pressure from the United States and Israel, and from many Palestinians, to undertake extensive reforms and concrete steps against terrorism. Mr. Arafat evidently hoped that a unified stand by all Palestinian organizations against suicide bombings and for a two-state solution would satisfy some of the demands.

But Mr. Shaath's statement confirmed indications that Hamas was not prepared to fall in line behind Mr. Arafat. Two senior Hamas leaders have been killed in Israeli raids in recent weeks, evidently hardening the group's stance.

The Israeli strike against the Hamas leader in the Jenin area on Wednesday raised concerns when it emerged that the Israeli troops had sent a teenage neighbor to enter the house where the leader, Nasr Jarrar, was holed up, to pass on a demand that he surrender.

The 19-year-old youth, Nidal Abu Mohsen, was shot dead approaching the house — each side accused the other of shooting — and the Israelis blasted the house, killing the Hamas leader in the rubble. The Israelis said he was preparing a major attack inside Israel.

The Israeli Army did not deny using Mr. Abu Mohsen but insisted that using a Palestinian to bear a message was not the same as using human shields. During the Israeli raids into West Bank towns last spring, the army acknowledged using Palestinians as shields as they searched houses but then announced it was discontinuing the practice.

B'Tselem, an organization that monitors human rights in the West Bank and Gaza, charged that "using civilians to enter homes is just as life-threatening as the practices the state discontinued."

Ephraim Sneh, the transportation minister and a former general, told Israeli Army radio, "I'm not sure that this stands up to the test of the law, but there is the consideration that we have to prevent a large terror attack and it's clear which consideration wins in this situation."

In Gaza, a spokesman for Hamas, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, said Mr. Jarrar's death "will not pass without strong punishment."

Mr. Fayad, the finance minister, is one of the senior Palestinian leaders who have been holding talks with an Israeli team led by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, in which a key subject has been the release of Palestinian funds blocked by Israel. Israel agreed on Wednesday to release another $14 million of an estimated $300 million in tax revenues that were collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

Mr. Peres and the Palestinians have also been discussing an Israeli proposal to restore full Palestinian control in Gaza, to see if the Palestinian Authority is prepared to take charge of security. The Palestinians, led by their chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, have not rejected the idea, but have urged that at least one West Bank town be included to underscore that Gaza and the West Bank are "one entity," as Mr. Erekat said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian security officials said Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 5-year-old boy in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, according to The Associated Press. The Palestinian officials said the boy's grandfather and another Palestinian man were critically wounded.

In a statement, the Israeli military said three Palestinians opened fire at soldiers and fled in a car. The soldiers fired back, wounding one of the men. The military said it knew nothing of a child who was hit.

Israeli military officials also said soldiers shot and killed two armed Palestinians who were approaching the fence around Gaza with a bomb, The Associated Press reported.