Israel must avoid all steps that would impede efforts to bring peace, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday during a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The Egyptian leader opened his talks with Olmert by condemning an Israeli raid in Ramallah hours before the meeting in which at least four Palestinians were killed and 20 others were hurt. "Israel's security cannot be achieved through military force but by serious endeavors toward peace," Egypt´s state-run MENA news agency quoted Mubarak as telling Olmert during their meeting in Sharm el Sheikh.
Mubarak called for "the immediate halt of all acts of violence and any practices that will impede efforts" to bring peace, MENA said.
Olmert responded by apologizing if civilians were caught in the crossfire, but defended Israel's raid as an operation aimed at stopping "terrorists¨ responsible for the death of Israeli citizens. ¨
"I am sorry if innocent people were hurt in the operation in Ramallah," Olmert said after ¨the summit with Mubarak. "Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance, if innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention," he said.
