The spiritual leader of the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas has warned that their patience "has its limits" as efforts continue to shore up the ceasefire with Israel. Sheikh Yassin said Hamas was still committed to the truce but would not retract its demand for the release of all Palestinians held in Israel prisons. The issue of how many prisoners Israel is willing to release has strained relations at the top of the Palestinian leadership with the prime minister threatening to resign. "Our patience has its limits," said Sheikh Yassin after talks with the Egyptians in Gaza. Also, a senior official of Islamic Jihad reiterated the organisation's position. "Jihad is respecting its commitments," Nafez Azzam told reporters. "Israel is the one threatening the truce. There can not be a free or indefinite truce so long as Israeli aggression continues and the prisoners question is ignored." The issue of Israel's Palestinian prisoners - thought to number about 7,000 in all - was a "red line which can never be bypassed", he added. The truce was jolted again by an incident overnight when Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man outside the West Bank town of Jenin. Military sources said the man had opened fire on troops as they arrested his brother, a wanted militant. **Prisoner Issue*** Hundreds of demonstrators marched through Jenin after the shooting bearing photographs of relatives detained in Israel. "No truce without the release of all prisoners in Israeli jails, without exception," they chanted. Most of the prisoners were detained during the current Palestinian uprising which began in September 2000. Israeli peace activists said on Wednesday that the number of Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank had increased since the Aqaba peace summit in Jordan in June despite Israeli steps to remove some of the settlements. The Israeli army had dismantled eight outposts but settlers had set up another 10, said a spokesman for Peace Now. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Palestinian senior Hamas leader Dr. Mahmoud al Zhar welcomes Egyptian mediator Mustafa al Beheri, left, at the residence of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City, Wednesday,July 9, 2003. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)