TEL AVIV, January 5, 2007 (WAFA) - Gush Shalom said Friday "At the very hour when the Prime Minister of the State of Israel held with the President of Egypt a meeting, which is supposed to bring us back on the route to peace, somebody had decided to send soldiers, bulldozers and helicopter gunships to conduct a deadly midday raid into Ramallah."

In a press release, Gush Shalom said the largest Israeli force to enter this city in the past four years conducted a prolonged gun battle in Ramallah's main square, in front of international TV crews, and killed four Palestinian inhabitants.

"It was an act of heavy-handed aggression which immediately wiped out Olmert's so-called "gestures" to President Abu Mazen (none of which, incidentally, was carried out)," according to the press release.

It added, either somebody deliberately intended to create a deadly provocation, or it was an unbelievable show of stupidity and incompetence.

"In both cases, the dire result is the same, as is the conclusion: this is not the way to build a ceasefire, and certainly not the way to advance towards peace."

Gush Shalom said, if the deadly Israeli raids into the West Bank cities are not stopped, there will also be no quiet in Sderot and on the Gaza Strip border, and all of us will sink deeper into the abyss of hatred and bloodshed.

A.D (22:42 P) (20:42 GMT)