Israeli occupation troops enforcing a curfew on Palestinians during the Jewish Passover holiday killed a young Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Thursday, Palestinian witnesses and medics said. They said Yusuf Yahya, 21, was shot several times after being spotted on a Tulkarm street by Israeli forces. They said Yahya had no connection with Palestinian activists fighting against Israel for independence since September 2000. An Israeli occupation army spokesman said the man was shot after he threw two petrol bombs at patrolling troops and as he was preparing to light up a third.

Military sources said occupation troops and armored vehicles also surrounded a Tulkarm hospital after receiving intelligence that an activist suspected of organizing resistance bombings against Israelis was hiding inside.

Palestinian witnesses said occupation troops were preventing anyone from going in or out of the hospital. An occupation army spokesman denied this, saying the hospital's work was not being obstructed.

Israel imposed a general closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip , banning Palestinian travel within and in and out of the territories with curfews in some places, during the Passover period following warnings of attacks planned by activists.

Palestinians call such measures collective punishment.

Last year, a resistance bomber killed 29 people at an Israeli hotel during the traditional holiday "seder" meal, the deadliest Palestinian attack inside Israel since the start two and a half years ago of a Palestinian uprising for statehood.

That bombing prompted Israel to reoccupy West Bank cities granted self-rule a decade ago under interim peace deals since eclipsed by the violence. Palestinians rose up after talks with Israel on statehood broke down in mid-2000.

Passover, which began at sundown on Wednesday and runs for a week, is the Jewish festival of freedom marking the biblical exodus from slavery in Egypt.

In Gaza, hospital sources said a 32-year-old Palestinian policeman, Adham al-Katri, died on Thursday from wounds he suffered during an Israeli occupation army raid into Gaza city in February.

At least 1,996 Palestinians and 732 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian boy takes a shovel from an Israeli tank during clashes in the West Bank city of Jenin, April 4, 2003. Israeli occupation forces captured a top Islamic activist on Friday after emptying a West Bank refugee camp near Tulkarm of most of its men, a tactic which drew censure from Palestinian officials and human rights groups. REUTERS/Ammar Awad