Israeli troops backed by armoured vehicles yesterday raided a five-storey apartment building, ransacking every apartment in the building in a search for a wanted Hamas member, Palestinian witnesses said. The raid sparked a shootout with Palestinian fighters, and windows were shot out by the gunfire. Soldiers surrounded the building for several hours while they searched for the suspect. The raid came just before the ruling Likud Party in Israel delayed its referendum on a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip by three days to May 2, fearing a basketball championship game would have kept too many voters at home. The agonising over logistics reflected the difficulties Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is facing in trying to sell the plan to his hawkish party. Backers of the plan were concerned that many of those who did not feel strongly would rather watch the game than vote "yes," while the ideological core of the party would vote "no" in any case. Sharon has proposed uprooting all 21 settlements in Gaza, as well as four settlements in the West Bank, as part of his plan to separate Israelis and Palestinians in the absence of progress toward a peace agreement. In return, Sharon hopes to expand five large blocs of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Sharon travelled to the US looking for an endorsement from President George W Bush. A witness in Nablus said soldiers were looking for Jafaar Masri, a Hamas activist who lived in the building. Last August, the army demolished an eight-storey building where Masri lived at the time. Witnesses said troops arrested Masri's wife and brother on Tuesday, but that Masri wasn't in the building. Troops systematically searched all 20 apartments in the building, residents said, destroying furniture, overturning tables and breaking windows. Troops left after several hours. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Israeli soldiers arrest Azmi Masri, the brother of Hamas member Jafar Masri, in the West Bank town of Nablus, Tuesday, April 13, 2004. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)