Israeli occupation troops killed two Palestinians, including a fugitive Islamic activist, in a gun battle at a West Bank firehouse Friday. As daily violence continued, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon  tried to arrange a meeting with President Bush  to discuss a U.S. peace plan. Sharon, re-elected to another term this week in a sweeping victory, spoke with Bush by phone about meeting in Washington to discuss an American peace plan that aims to create a Palestinian state by 2005, a senior official in Sharon's office said.

The meeting is unlikely to happen soon, however, because of U.S. preparations for a possible war with Iraq, the official said.

In the West Bank town of Jenin, Iyad Abu Lael, a 21-year-old wanted Hamas activist was killed Friday after he ran from occupation troops, the Israeli occupation army and Palestinian security officials said.

They said he fled into a firehouse with two other men, then came out firing and was killed by the occupation troops.

Another man, a 52-year-old Palestinian security guard, Hassan Ahmed, was also killed in the exchange of fire, and gunbattles along the street left the fire station's walls and trucks scarred with bullet marks.

The occupation army said two other suspected resistance activist were arrested.

After the gunfight, a grieving woman wrapped her arms around the dead Hamas man's blood-streaked face, his eyes wide open.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, occupation soldiers blew up two houses belonging to other Palestinian activists, leaving more than 15 of their relatives homeless in the city of Hebron. In a haze of tear gas, tanks rumbled through streets that run between Jewish enclaves and Palestinian neighborhoods.

Israeli occupation troops have been in control of most West Bank cities since June, when Israel carried out an offensive in response to Palestinian resistance bombings in Israel.

Israel's tough hold in the West Bank, which includes nightly operations to arrest suspected activists, looked likely to continue after Tuesday's Israeli election.

In the election, Sharon won voter endorsement of his heavy crackdown on the Palestinians after more than two years of violence. Hawkish parties, including Sharon's Likud, gained a majority of 69 seats in the 120-member parliament.

Though Likud is by far the largest party in the new parliament, Sharon still has to put together a coalition to secure the majority. Likud won 37 seats.

Whether it will be a narrow right-wing government or a broad-based coalition with the dovish Labor Party could determine the direction of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sharon has said he wants Labor in the government. However, Sharon opposes Labor's platform, which calls for the withdrawal of occupation soldiers and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip  and parts of the West Bank and the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Sharon has ruled out any peace talks until violence stops.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian youth sits atop the rubble of the vegetable market destroyed by Israeli forces as an Israeli occupation army tank, its barrel gun seen in the foreground, holds a position in the southern West Bank town of Hebron Thursday Jan. 30, 2003. Israeli occupation army bulldozers demolished the vegetable market in the center of Hebron, and occupation troops closed Palestinian police and TV stations in the West Bank city as part of a crackdown on suspected activists. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitaraki