Jerusalem ? Four former Israeli security chiefs sharply criticized Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s policies toward the Palestinians on Friday, warning in unusually bold terms that Israel is headed for catastrophe if it does not reach a peace deal soon.

The unprecedented warning comes as Sharon’s government weighs how to approach the new government of Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia. An expected meeting between the leaders would be the first such high-level encounter in months.

The four former security chiefs, respected for their combined 18 years experience as leaders of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, called on the Israeli government to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip as the only way to avoid more violence after more than three years of fighting.

“It is clear to me that we are heading toward a crash,” said Carmi Gilon, one of the group.

Their comments came two weeks after army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon said the government needed to ease restrictions that have increasingly angered Palestinians. Another of the four, Yaakov Perry, said it was no coincidence that those closest to the conflict came to the same conclusion.

“Why is it that that everyone, Shin Bet directors, chiefs of staff, former security personnel … become the advocates of reconciliation with the Palestinians?” Perry said. “We know the material, the people in the field and surprisingly enough, both sides.”

Qureia, the Palestinian prime minister, is trying to secure an agreement from Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israelis in anticipation of a broader truce with Israel.

Israel’s security services are reportedly divided on whether to accept a truce. The military believes a cease-fire is a step in the right direction and is ready to halt targeted killings of Palestinian militants, the Maariv daily reported Friday. The current Shin Bet chief is concerned that armed groups will use the lull to reorganize for more attacks.

Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who has played a key role in mediating previous truce efforts, will meet with Qureia and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Monday, Palestinian officials said. It was unclear if he would meet with Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders to ask for their cooperation.

But the spiritual leader of Hamas ruled out any prospects for an immediate end to attacks on Israelis.

“We have no objection to any dialogue with the (Palestinian) prime minister,” Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said during a rally Friday in the Gaza Strip. “We are willing to listen to any proposal. We will give him answers … but in the current situation, we can’t talk about any cease-fire.”

The former Shin Bet directors recommended far more than a cease-fire, saying Israel needed a true peace agreement as soon as possible.

The four — Ami Ayalon, Avraham Shalom, Perry and Gilon — spoke in an interview with the Yediot Ahronot daily published Friday.

An Israeli soldier carries a Palestinian baby before handing it over to the mother after she crossed from the West Bank town of Bethlehem into Jerusalem at a checkpoint between the two towns. Four former heads of Israel's vaunted Shin Bet security service on Friday warned of a catastrophe for Israel if a peace deal with the Palestinians is not reached quickly, and said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was not trying hard enough.