Autonomy Talks Halt on Eve of Deadline : Mideast: Negotiators say pact between Israel and PLO is weeks away. Settler is accused in death of pregnant Palestinian.

On the eve of the official deadline for a historic peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, negotiators in Cairo adjourned Tuesday, still weeks away from a final autonomy agreement.

Meantime, the killing continued in the occupied lands to which Israel and the PLO last September promised to bring peace through a plan for limited Israeli withdrawal and Palestinian autonomy by today.

There were encouraging statements from the delegations as they left for home Tuesday. They appeared to agree on the size of the Palestinian force that will police an autonomous Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Jericho and on the weapons its members will wield. And they promised the return of up to 50 more Palestinian deportees in the next few days.

But in the territories, there was more violence: A 36-year-old Jewish settler allegedly shot and killed a pregnant, 18-year-old Palestinian woman in her home in the occupied West Bank village of Al Jib near Jerusalem.

Israeli soldiers destroyed the home of Dr. Mohammed Woheidi, a prominent supporter of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The Israeli army directed small arms fire and antitank missiles into the home and then finally bulldozed it in an unsuccessful operation to capture armed Palestinian extremists suspected of hiding there.

Palestinian sources said the operation continued into the night, with intense firefights reported in and around Ramallah. But Israel Television, which confirmed that the house had been demolished, reported there were no injuries in the initial siege, which had sealed off the entire town for more than 24 hours.

A spokesman for the Israeli military, which is on high alert to guard against vows by Palestinian Islamic extremists to attack during two important Israeli holidays today and Thursday, said he could not comment on the Ramallah operation. But he confirmed that soldiers fatally shot a Palestinian refugee, Awad Hassan Tafish, 23, in an unrelated incident; he is said to have stoned a military patrol at a camp near Ramallah.

In the Al Jib attack, three miles north of Jerusalem, Israeli police said they arrested the Israeli driver of a soft-drink delivery truck after he opened fire on a crowd of Palestinian stone-throwers, killing Fatma Khalifa as she was cleaning her house.

Police and Palestinian witnesses said the driver, Natan Engelsman, a resident of the Jewish settlement of Shiloh, apparently fired repeatedly from his moving truck after it was stoned by Palestinian youths near Khalifa’s roadside home.

Against that backdrop of Arab-Israeli violence, Israeli and PLO negotiators in Cairo said they did not expect final agreement on the long-delayed autonomy plan for Gaza and Jericho for at least several weeks.

In announcing that Israel had agreed to permit the return of more deported Palestinians today or Thursday, PLO chief negotiator Nabil Shaath conceded that the embattled residents of the territories “really will not see their dreams fulfilled until we sign this agreement. And when we sign this agreement, within two weeks they will see everything we had hoped. . . . They will see the beginning of the end of occupation.”

The two delegations announced a tentative agreement on the size and weaponry of the future Palestinian force that will police an autonomous Gaza and Jericho within weeks of a final autonomy agreement.

But the two sides indicated that they remain far apart on key issues that will consume weeks more of negotiations when they return to bargaining on Sunday, after Israel’s celebration of its Memorial Day today and Independence Day on Thursday and the Muslim and Jewish Sabbaths.

Fineman reported from Jerusalem and Murphy from Cairo.