Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians yesterday, an activist in a West Bank city centre and a man standing at the window of a house in a Gaza refugee camp overlooking a Jewish settlement, witnesses said. Assad Falah Halilya, identified by the activist Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as one of its members, was shot in the head by what witnesses described as undercover Israeli troops firing at him from a car in the northern West Bank city of Jenin. An Israeli military source said a wanted Palestinian was shot and killed after trying to flee paramilitary border police who went to arrest him. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops guarding the Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam fired into the neighbouring Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah, killing a 42-year-old man who was shutting a window in his home at the time, witnesses said. Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon was under pressure yesterday from his powerful finance minister and the UN's Mideast envoy to open talks with Syria. With the internationally-drafted peace roadmap in tatters, Netanyahu urged Sharon to go back on his refusal to resume peace negotiations with Syria. The UN co-ordinator for the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, also urged Israel to accept Syria's offer to reopen talks, saying it was in the country's best interests. "It is in the interest of the Israeli government to return directly to the negotiating table," Roed-Larsen told the London-based Arab newspaper Al Hayat in an interview. Sharon is reportedly awaiting Washington's opinion on the seriousness of Syria's proposal. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Palestinian mourners carry the body of Mahmoud Qurad during his funeral at the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 8, 2004. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)