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DATE/ AUTHOR None	AUTHORS: Steven Erlanger

H Israeli Raid Overshadows Olmert’s Talks With Mubarak

S1 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on Thursday evening in an effort to give momentum to the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
S2 But the meeting was overshadowed by an Israeli raid in the West Bank in which four Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded.

S3 Mr. Mubarak was clearly embarrassed by the timing of the raid, hours before the meeting of the two leaders in an Egyptian Red Sea resort town, Sharm el Sheik.
S4 He called it a hindrance to peace efforts and told Mr. Olmert that Egypt ''rejects and is indignant at the military operation.''

S5 ''Israel's security cannot be achieved through military force but by serious endeavors toward peace,'' Mr. Mubarak added at his news conference with Mr. Olmert.

S6 Mr. Olmert said that he was sorry that innocent Palestinians were hurt, but that Israel would defend itself and was acting to arrest ''terrorists who had killed Israelis.''

S7 He gave no explanation for the timing of the daylight raid, a vain attempt to arrest a wanted militant, which used unusual force in normally quiet Ramallah.
S8 He said Israeli troops returned fire, but did not initiate it.
S9 ''Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance,'' he said.
S10 ''If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention.''

S11 The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, with whom Mr. Olmert met last week, condemned the raid, saying in a statement that it ''proved that the Israeli calls for peace and security are fake.''
S12 Palestinians have been calling for an extension of a Gaza truce with Israel to the West Bank.

S13 ''The continued aggression will only lead to the destruction of all efforts aimed at realizing peace,'' Mr. Abbas said.

S14 Mr. Olmert and Mr. Mubarak said Egypt was continuing its efforts to secure the release of an Israeli corporal captured in June by militants, offering in exchange several hundred Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
S15 There had been speculation that the two men might be able to announce more concrete progress on the matter, which is blocking more substantive discussions with Mr. Abbas.

S16 Egyptian officials said that they were discussing another Olmert-Abbas meeting with Egyptian and Jordanian leaders present.
S17 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit the region this month.

S18 It was an unusual and emotional day for Mr. Olmert, during which he commemorated two legendary Israeli political figures, both of whom he succeeded in their jobs.

S19 Earlier, in Jerusalem, he spoke at the state funeral for the city's fabled former mayor, Teddy Kollek, who died Tuesday at 95 and was buried in the area of the Mount Herzl cemetery reserved for Israel's leaders.

S20 Mr. Olmert defeated Mr. Kollek to become Jerusalem's mayor in a bitter political fight in 1993.
S21 He said Israel's first leader, David Ben-Gurion, had declared Jerusalem to be Israel's capital in 1949, but ''Teddy Kollek made it so.''

S22 Thursday also marked a year since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a second extensive stroke, which left him in a deep coma from which he is not expected to awaken.
S23 Mr. Olmert, Mr. Sharon's deputy, was chosen to lead the Kadima Party in his stead and became prime minister, and he acknowledged Mr. Sharon's tragedy at his news conference in Egypt.

S24 In general, Mr. Olmert has been regarded as inferior to Mr. Sharon and Mr. Kollek.
S25 In the latest opinion poll, conducted by the Dahaf Institute and reported Thursday in the newspaper Yediot Aharanot, nearly 70 percent of Israelis polled said they disapproved of Mr. Olmert's performance as prime minister.
S26 Israelis are unhappy with the way he managed the summer's war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and do not much like his personality, contrasting him with the more stolid and experienced Mr. Sharon.

S27 Still, Mr. Olmert has proved himself a skilled politician, and early on Thursday Parliament quietly passed his $68 billion budget, a crucial test of his government's ability to survive.
S28 The budget battle was always a great drama under Mr. Sharon, but Mr. Olmert, who has expanded his governing coalition to include parties ranging from Labor to the right-wing Israel Beiteinu Party of Avigdor Lieberman, had little difficulty.

S29 Mr. Olmert's office is being rocked, though, by a new corruption scandal.
S30 He has not been touched by this scandal, though he has been under investigation for smaller cases of improper use of influence.

S31 But his longtime office director, Shula Zaken, has been put under house arrest and ordered not to contact Mr. Olmert as the police investigate whether she and the director of the Tax Authority, Jackie Matza, tried to help Ms. Zaken's brother and two other businesspeople through the appointment of cronies to key jobs in return for tax breaks.

S32 About 30 people are under some form of detention in the spreading scandal.

S33 The operation in Ramallah by Israeli forces, with armored vehicles, bulldozers and helicopter support, was carried out hours before Mr. Olmert met with Mr. Mubarak.

S34 Palestinians and news reports said the operation was to arrest Rabiah Hamad of Fatah, a senior member of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
S35 The army would not confirm that Mr. Hamad was the target, but said the man it wanted was armed and was wounded, but escaped.
S36 The army arrested four other wanted Palestinians, a spokesman said.

S37 It was a rare incursion into the heart of Ramallah, and it prompted an angry response.
S38 Youths on rooftops threw stones, metal trash barrels, a refrigerator and blocks of concrete at the Israeli Army vehicles.
S39 There were mortars fired at the Israeli soldiers, and an exchange of gunfire.

S40 Palestinian medics said four men -- Yussef Abdel Khader, 23; Khalil al-Badawi, 20; Jamal Jawela, 29; and Ala al-Himran, in his 20s -- died at a Ramallah hospital from gunshot wounds.

S41 In Gaza there was continuing violence, with three more men killed in fighting between Fatah and Hamas.
S42 The fighting centered around the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza after gunmen surrounded the houses of known political or security figures.

S43 In Beit Lahiya, a senior Fatah commander, Col. Muhammad Gharib, was killed and his wife severely wounded when Hamas militants attacked his home with rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
S44 Two of his bodyguards were also killed.
S45 About 25 others were wounded in Jabaliya, and local radio was filled with appeals to the gunmen to restore calm.

S46 On Wednesday five Palestinians, including a woman who was a passer-by, were killed and 12 wounded in Fatah-Hamas gun battles, which broke a weeklong lull.
S47 Other militant factions arranged a truce overnight and kidnapped members of Hamas and Fatah were released by the other sides, but the truce broke down on Thursday.

S48 The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, returned to Gaza on Thursday from hajj, his pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
S49 His entourage underwent a special inspection in El Arish, Egypt, to ensure that he was not carrying large amounts of cash back to Gaza, which has been deprived of most Western aid since Hamas won parliamentary elections last January.

S50 [Early Friday, Mr. Haniya said he and Mr. Abbas had agreed at emergency talks to keep gunmen from their parties off Gaza's streets.]

S51 For the fourth day there was no word about a kidnapped Peruvian photographer for Agence France-Presse, Jaime Rázuri, 50, who is said by colleagues to be lacking a required heart medication.

S52 Palestinian security services have warned foreign journalists to keep out of Gaza for now, because of the kidnappings and chaos.

S53 A leader of the Palestinian People's Party, Bassam al-Salhi, said the security chaos could be resolved only with political agreement.
S54 ''The weakness of the Palestinian political system and the situation of the current Hamas-led government have contributed to this state of lawlessness,'' he said.

