Israeli occupation soldiers shot and killed an unarmed Palestinian fugitive in a West Bank refugee camp Monday, after he tried to escape arrest and hid on a rooftop, officials said. In the Gaza Strip , Israeli occupation forces stationed near a Jewish settlement shot and killed a Palestinian carrying an assault rifle and hand grenades, the occupation army said. The latest violence occurred hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to begin negotiations to build a government out of parliamentary factions that have conflicting demands and interests.

Sharon, who crushed his rivals in Jan. 28 elections, wants to include the left-center Labor Party in his coalition, but it was unlikely the party's dovish leader, Amram Mitzna, would renege on a campaign pledge to stay out of a Likud-led government.

In the al-Ain refugee camp near Nablus, Imad Mabruk, a senior resistance activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, jumped from the roof of his home to the roof of a nearby house as Israeli occupation soldiers surrounded his home after midnight and demanded he surrender, said his cousin, Yusef Mabruk.

Mabruk hid on the roof for several hours. At about 5 a.m., gunshots were heard. Shortly after the occupation soldiers left, the family found Mabruk's body, riddled with gunshot wounds, on the roof.

Israeli military officials confirmed that the resistance activist was unarmed, but said he was a danger because he was a senior fugitive fleeing arrest and could have been heavily armed. He was shot and killed while trying to escape, the officials said.

A leader of group in Nablus called the killing an assassination and vowed to retaliate.

The latest killing comes days after Sharon met Ahmed Qureia, a senior Palestinian negotiator, in an attempt to reach a truce. Such cycles of violence have been the downfall of several cease-fire attempts in more than two years of fighting.

Sharon offered the Palestinians a gradual cease-fire in which Israeli occupation troops would withdraw from reoccupied Palestinian towns and cities. However, Palestinians want an end to what Israel's military terms "targeted killings." Without such an offer it seems unlikely a truce will take hold.

Sharon's talks with Qureia, the first high-level contacts in about a year, were seen by some as a political ploy aimed at the Labor Party and to the Americans, who want to keep the Israeli-Palestinian conflict quiet while they pursue their military interests in Iraq.

Sharon's aides denied the talks were a ploy.

The Labor Party says it would join a Sharon-led government only if Israel renews peace talks and withdraws from the Gaza Strip, including the dismantlement of settlements, among other conditions. Sharon has rejected these demands.

Mitzna said he would not even form a negotiating team to discuss the terms for a coalition with Sharon because he learned during a meeting last week that the prime minister did not intend to change his policies. During Sharon's two years in office he has pursued tough military measures against the Palestinians and has insisted that all violence must stop before negotiations are renewed.

"The problem is not technical or administrative. The problem is the content," Mitzna told Israel's Occupation army Radio.

Political analysts predicted that in the end Mitzna would have to give in to pressures in his party and form a team to negotiate with Sharon. They said such talks would likely lead to a Likud-Labor government similar to the one Labor abandoned last year, a move that led to an early election and contributed to Labor's crushing defeat.

If Labor refuses a partnership, Sharon will have to rely on right-wing, ultra-Orthodox and anti-religious parties to piece together a majority, which could impede progress in the peace process and threaten Israel's close relationship with the United States.

PHOTO CAPTION
Two Israeli explosive experts walk next to the wreck of a Palestinian car that blew up outside an Israeli occupation army post near the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip , Sunday, Feb. 9, 2003. According to Israeli occupation army sources three Palestinians were killed after their explosives-laden car blew up outside an Israeli occupation army post after crashing into a cement block barrier. Four Israeli occupation soldiers were lightly hurt. (AP Photo/Gadi Kabal