HIGHLIGHTS: Hamas Claims Responsibility||Resistance Keeps Occupation Troops Busy in Gaza & Hebron||U.S. Team Huddles on Mideast Policy Speech|| STORY: A firefight near an internationally illegal Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip left two Israeli occupation soldiers killed and four wounded, one seriously, and one of the Palestinians was killed. Israeli occupation troops meanwhile raided two West Bank towns.

The attack came after Israeli occupation troops moved into the West Bank towns of Jenin and Tulkarem late Friday and early Saturday, allegedly searching for militant activity and clamping on curfews before withdrawing.

HAMAS CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY

Hamas's military wing Izzadin Kassam claimed responsibility for the attack. Ismael Hanya, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, told the Arabic satellite network Al-Jazeera that the Palestinian people is defending itself against Israeli aggression in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Tanks entering Jenin backed by helicopters shot and destroyed four small workshops but no one was injured, Palestinian security officials said. No arrests were reported.

RESISTANCE KEEPS OCCUPATION TROOPS BUSY

Late Saturday, a rocket was shot from the Gaza Strip into a nearby Israeli community, but no injuries or damage were reported.
Also on Saturday, Israeli military officials said soldiers had found a car full of homemade explosives near the Elei Sinai settlement in the Gaza Strip. Occupation soldiers destroyed the car with tank and machine-gun fire.

The occupation army reported late Saturday that troops had a day earlier captured a Palestinian militant, Fadi Duwaik, in the West Bank town of Hebron for allegedly carrying out a shooting attack in a nearby Jewish settlement. In the attack on April 27, four Israelis were killed.

U.S. TEAM HUDDLES ON MIDEAST POLICY SPEECH

In Washington, the most senior US officials conferred Saturday in an effort to resolve differences over what President George W. Bush should say sometime this week in a Middle East policy address.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and CIA Director George Tenet took part in the teleconference, which had been delayed from Friday.

Bush, who is spending the Father's Day weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, returns to Washington Sunday night.

In his speech, Bush is expected to flesh out his views on Palestinian statehood, and propose most likely a general time frame for moving toward that goal, with a strong performance component built in as a concession to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and announce that Powell will travel to the region before an international peace conference next month.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Israeli injured when at least one Palestinian resistance man opened fire Saturday at a Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip, is rushed into the emergency ward at a hospital in Ashkelon Saturday June 15, 2002. (AP Photo/Gadi K