ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 1 - Israeli Raid Overshadows Peace Talks Between Olmert And Mubarak.

PM Ehud Olmert of Israel and Pres Hosni Mubarak of Egypt meet to discuss how to restore momentum to negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. But the meeting, in the Red Sea town of Sharm el Sheik, was overshadowed by an Israeli military raid into the West Bank town of Ramallah, where troops trying to arrest a militant came under fire and killed 4 Palestinians and wounded 20. Mubarak, clearly embarrassed by the timing of the raid, called it a hindrance to the peace talks and told Olmert that Egypt "rejects and is indignant at the military operation". The Egyptian leader said, "Israel's security cannot be achieved through military force but by serious endeavors toward peace". Olmert said that he was sorry that innocent Palestinians had been hurt, but that Israel would defend itself and had acted to arrest "terrorists who had killed Israelis". He gave no explanation for the timing of the raid, which occurred in daylight and with unusual force in a normally quiet Ramallah. Olmert said that Israeli troops had returned fire but had not initiated it. "Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance", he insisted. "If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention". The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, with whom Olmert met last week, condemned the raid in a statement, saying that it "proved that the Israeli calls for peace and security are fake". Palestinians have been calling for an extension of a Gaza truce to the West Bank. "The continued aggression will only lead to the destruction of all efforts aimed at realizing peace", Abbas said. Olmert and Mubarak said that Egyptian efforts were continuing on securing the release, in exchange for several hundred Palestinian prisoners, of an Israeli cor poral captured by Hamas last June. There had been speculation that the two men might be able to announce more concrete progress on a possible release of the corporal, which is blocking a more substantive set of discussions with Abbas. Egyptian officials said they were discussing another meeting between Olmert and Abbas, where Egyptian and Jordanian leaders would be present. The US State Sec Condoleezza Rice, is scheduled to visit the region this month. In Gaza, there was continuing violence, with three more men killed in fighting between armed members of the Fatah and Hamas movements. The fighting centered on the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza after gunmen surrounded the houses of known political and security figures. One senior Fatah commander in Beit Lahiya, Colonel Muhammad Gharib, was killed and his wife badly wounded when Hamas militants attacked his home with rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Two of his bodyguards were also killed. Some 25 others were wounded in Jabaliya, and local radio was filled with appeals to the gunmen to restore calm.