Israeli occupation troops killed a Palestinian resistance man who fired on an internationally illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank on Saturday, the occupation army said, and U.S. peace activist Brian Avery was severely wounded in the face in another incident. Witnesses said an apparent ricochet bullet from an Israeli armored vehicle while in the streets of the West Bank city of Jenin hit Avery during a curfew. Israeli occupation army sources said the armored vehicle was exchanging fire with a Palestinian resistance man.

The sources said Avery was in a critical condition and had been put into intensive care at an Israeli hospital.

The latest bloodshed in a 30-month-old Palestinian uprising for an independent state came as President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair prepared to meet next week to discuss reviving the Middle East peace process.

Washington has been anxious to see a reduction in Israeli-Palestinian violence while it wages war in Iraq in an effort to oust President Saddam Hussein amid widespread disquiet in the Muslim world.

Tobia Karlsson, a colleague from the International Solidarity Movement to Protect the Palestinian People whose supporters act as "human shields" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said he was standing next to Avery at the time.

"Although we were wearing vests identifying ourselves as internationals, the armored vehicle fired its main gun at us," Karlsson told Reuters.

"The bullets hit the ground only two or three meters (six to nine ft) away from us. I was showered with fragments, and I turned to see Brian lying down in a big pool of blood."

Karlsson said he heard shots before the incident but could see no Palestinians in the area where Avery was hit.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said: "We have seen the reports. The U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv and our consulate in Jerusalem are now following up to find out what happened and determine the identity and welfare of the individual."

HAVENS FOR RESISTANCE MEN

Jenin and its refugee camp are havens for Islamic resistance men blamed for dozens of resistance bombings in Israel.

In the Jewish Kiryat Arba an internationally illegal Jewish settlement outside the West Bank city of Hebron, a Palestinian resistance man opened fire from a building outside the perimeter fence but caused no casualties, the occupation army said.

Occupation troops guarding the internationally illegal Jewish settlement shot the Palestinian dead.

Resistance men often target internationally illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Palestinians want for a state.

International peace activists and aid workers have on occasion fallen casualty to the violence.

The United States vowed last week to press ahead with a long-awaited international "road map" designed to achieve Palestinian statehood by 2005 and security for Israel. Washington drew up the plan with its so-called "Quartet" partners -- the United Nations, European Union and Russia.

The Palestinians have called for the "road map," which has languished in diplomatic limbo since last year, to be implemented at once and unchanged.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian medics attend to Brian Avery of the United States. Avery was wounded in the face while in the streets of the West Bank city of Jenin on April 5, 2003, Palestinian witnesses said. (Reuters)