Israeli occupation soldiers searching for West Bank resistance activists killed a Palestinian resistance man on Friday in an exchange of fire that also killed a bystander. The gun battle outside a fire station in Jenin coincided with an open-ended Israeli sweep that began on Thursday in another West Bank city, Hebron, a frequent flashpoint of confrontations in a 28-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

While the occupation army pursued activists, final results of Tuesday's Israeli parliamentary election gave Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party 38 seats in the 120-member parliament, one better than in earlier tallies.

Short of a ruling majority, Sharon faces an uphill battle to create the unity coalition he says is needed to confront what he calls terrorism and the prospect of a U.S. war on Iraq that could draw Iraqi missile attacks on Israel.

GUNFIGHT AT FIRE HOUSE

In Jenin in the northern West Bank, occupation soldiers killed a man identified by Israeli occupation army sources as a senior operative of the Palestinian Resistance group Hamas, which has carried out dozens of resistance bombings in Israel.

The sources said occupation troops surrounded the city's fire station and ordered everyone out.

"The firemen came out but one man started shooting from inside. No troops were hit, but a Palestinian was killed by his gunfire before troops shot resistance man dead," one source said.

Palestinian witnesses said the bystander was hit by Israeli gunfire.

In the northwestern town of Shweika, troops arrested an activist of Aqsa Brigades on suspicion he was planning a bombing.

TWO PALESTINIAN HOUSES DEMOLISHED IN HEBRON, AL-KHALIL

At the other end of the West Bank, army engineers blew up two houses in Hebron.

One belonged to a Palestinian convicted of shooting to death an Israeli settler nearly two years ago in an internationally illegal Jewish settler enclave in the city. Some 450 settlers live in heavily guarded compounds in Hebron, home to 150,000 Palestinians. .

The other home belonged to an activist who blew up in a taxi while on his way to carry out a bombing.

The Hebron raid followed the killing of three occupation soldiers outside an internationally illegal Jewish settlement a week ago near the city.

SEVEN PALESTINIANS WOUNDED IN BEIT HANOUN, GAZA

In the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, three Israeli tank shells crashed into a field where Palestinian youths were playing soccer, wounding seven, Palestinian medics said.

Israeli occupation army sources said their soldiers fired shots into the area, hitting several people, after spotting Palestinians about to fire Qassam rockets into Israel. It gave no detail.

Palestinian resistance men have launched dozens of homemade Qassam rockets into Israel from Beit Hanoun recently, generally causing only minor damage, and the Israeli occupation army has responded by demolishing buildings and sealing off much of the town.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian boys hurl stones at an Israeli tank as it patrols in the West Bank city of Hebron, January 31, 2003. (Ammar Awad/Re