Israeli occupation soldiers killed a Palestinian and carried out house-to-house searches in the West Bank on Thursday and divided the Gaza Strip into three parts, restricting the movement of more than 1 million Palestinians. The operations appeared to be part of Israel's stepped-up efforts against the resistance Islamic group Hamas, which killed four occupation soldiers in an attack on a tank Saturday in Gaza.

Despite the violence, Israelis and Palestinians have been holding increased contacts on the possibility of a cease-fire, though no breakthroughs have been achieved.

In London, William Burns, a U.S. State Department official, met Palestinian Cabinet ministers on Wednesday to discuss a U.S.-backed peace plan that envisions the creation of a Palestinian state in about three years.

Burns told the Palestinians that formal discussions on the plan would not resume until after Israel forms a new government - a process that could take several more weeks - and would also depend on developments in Iraq, said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, one of the participants.

The Palestinians asked the United States to send international monitors in the meantime to protect their civilians during Israeli occupation army offensives, but Burns said Washington did not support such an idea.

In the West Bank, Israeli occupation soldiers entered the town of Tulkarem early Thursday in an apparent search for activists and shot dead a 24-year-old Palestinian. The occupation army said the man was armed, but Palestinians said he was an unarmed Hamas supporter who happened to be standing near the Palestinian sought by Israel.

In Nablus, the largest West Bank city, Israeli occupation soldiers went door-to-door through the narrow streets of the Old City looking for suspects. Occupation soldiers on loudspeakers called on Palestinian residents to hand over wanted men.

The occupation troops used explosive charges to blow the locks off shops in the Old City, and a gold jewelry workshop was destroyed. The shops use chemicals, including acids, that can also be used in bombmaking, and Israeli occupation soldiers have torn them down in previous raids.

Dozens of Palestinians were arrested and taken to two Nablus schools that the occupation soldiers have commandeered, Palestinians said.

In the Gaza Strip, the scene of most of the recent violence, Israeli occupation soldiers blocked Gaza's main north-south road, carving the territory into three parts.

As in the past, Palestinians sought to evade the barrier by traveling along a narrow strip of beachfront.

Subhi Abu Assad, 48, was desperate to get three tons of squash to market before it went bad. His solution was to remove the squash from his truck and put it on a trailer bed, attached to a tractor, which he drove along the beach.

"It normally takes about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to go to market and come back," he said. "We started at seven this morning and it will probably take all day."

The occupation army said its operation in the Gaza Strip was in response to Palestinian rockets fired from northern Gaza at the Israeli town of Sderot on Wednesday. One Israeli was injured.

Since the attack on the Israeli tank Saturday, 29 Palestinians have been killed, including at least eight Hamas members.

In another development, Israeli authorities have approved construction of 126 houses in Efrat, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Kobi Bleich, a Housing Ministry spokesman, said there was a demand for additional homes in Efrat as the population continued to grow.

Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and Gaza for a future state, and are seeking the removal of the nearly 150 Jewish settlements and more than 225,000 residents.

PHOTO CAPTION

Inside a mosque, a Palestinian boy watches as a man drapes a Hamas flag over the body of one of the eleven Palestinians who were killed overnight in clashes with Israeli occupation troops, and buried Wednesday, in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Feb. 19, 2003. According to Palestinian and Israeli sources, twenty five were also wounded, in a night of clashes that included the demolition of several buildings and a failed resistance bombing attempt against an Israeli occupation tank. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsle