Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian near an Israeli-controlled road crossing in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian police officials said. Separately, in the West Bank town of Nablus, soldiers raided an apartment building in search of a wanted activist, Palestinians said. The incidents took place as Israeli Jews marked Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

The shooting of the Palestinian took place at an intersection on the main north-south road through Gaza, near the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif. But there were conflicting reports on how it took place, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli forces who handed over the man's body to Palestinian authorities said the man was shot by troops when he approached a military position near the crossing, the officials said.

The Israeli army said it would not comment until Yom Kippur was over Monday evening.

Witnesses said the shooting took place as Israeli soldiers were stopping vehicles at the crossing and forcing passengers to get out. The man confronted soldiers after being told to get out of his car, said one witness, taxi driver Marwah Khateeb, 42.

Palestinian police said they are investigating both Israeli army allegations and eyewitness accounts about the man's death.

Israel has controlled the checkpoint for the last 19 months, and several other Palestinians have been killed in the same area.

In the Nablus raid, soldiers ordered residents out of an eight-story building in Nablus' center while they searched a first-floor apartment. Residents said the apartment belonged to Nael el-Sakhal, a member of the military wing of the radical Islamic group Hamas who has been sought by Israel for months.

Residents said soldiers fired throughout the house, destroying cupboards and beds.

Also in Nablus, about 100 schoolgirls staged a sit-down demonstration in front of a local Red Cross office to protest a round-the-clock curfew imposed by Israel. The protest, which lasted about an hour, was organized by the mothers of the students, locals said.

Most West Bank towns have been under curfew since June, when Israel reoccupied seven out of eight towns after a spate of resistance bombings. The army pulled out of Bethlehem in August but still maintains a rigorous curfew in Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus and Jenin.

Nablus has been hardest hit by the restrictions. About 150,000 people in the town and nearby refugee camps have been confined to their homes for the past 86 days. The curfew has only been lifted for several days and even then for a few hours, not long enough for students to attend school, Palestinians say.

A day earlier, Israeli forces moved into an area of the Gaza Strip east of Gaza City to take control of a major intersection, witnesses said. Israeli bulldozers destroyed farmland, an irrigation pool and roads in the area. There were no casualties in the raid, which lasted four hours, witnesses said.

A military official said Israeli forces were on high alert for terror attacks on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Israel has been tightening its closure of Palestinian areas during Jewish holidays, for fear of attacks.

For Yom Kippur, Israel has shut down access for Palestinians to Israel from the West Bank and Gaza and banned travel between towns.

For many Jews, Yom Kippur is a time for prayer and somber reflection, and much of Israel shuts down for the duration. Bus and train services were halted and Ben-Gurion International Airport was closed Sunday until Monday night in observance of the holy day.

PHOTO CAPTION

Two Palestinian women brave the curfew as they pass an Israeli soldier patrolling a street in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Monday Sep. 16, 2002. The Israeli army maintained a strict curfew on the besieged town for the second day Monday under heavy security precautions for the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. (AP Photo/Nasser N