US alternative rock band The Pixies on Sunday cancelled their first-ever performance in Israel, the Tel Aviv promoters said in a statement, without giving any reason for the last-minute decision.

The group was to have performed a single gig on Wednesday as part of five-day music festival in Tel Aviv, but pulled out just days after a deadly Israeli naval raid on a foreign aid flotilla, which has provoked a huge international backlash.

"It is with great regret that we announce today The Pixies' decision to cancel their appearance in Israel on June 9," promoter Shuki Weiss said in a statement.

"We'd like to extend our deepest apologies to the fans, but events beyond all our control have conspired against us," it said, adding that all tickets would be fully refunded.

The move came just days after two British bands pulled out of the same music festival, Pic.Nic 2010, which started on Saturday and runs until June 9.

London-based indie punk band Klaxons and Gorillaz, a hiphop project fronted by Blur's Damon Albarn, were supposed to headline Pic.Nic 2010 but pulled out on Thursday in a move believed to be linked to the aid flotilla storming.

In recent months, Israel has been hit by a string of cancellations by high profile musicians, including Britain's Elvis Costello, rock guitarist Carlos Santana and rap forefather Gil Scott-Heron, after they came under pressure over Israel's policies towards the Palestinians.

The Pixies' decision to cancel comes three months after the band received an open letter from Israeli human rights activists urging them not to come to the Jewish state.

"As much as some of us are huge fans and would love to hear your show, we won't cross the international picket line that is growing in numbers steadily nowadays to come and see you," the group Boycott! wrote in an open letter to the band sent on March 1.

"The picket line might not always be visible; yet it is there. Are you prepared to perform in Tel Aviv while, just under your nose, millions of human beings are suffocating under a cruel Israeli military regime, denying them elementary human rights?"

Three weeks ago, Costello called off two gigs which were due to have taken place in the coastal city of Caesaria on June 30 and July 1, citing Israel's "intimidation" and "humiliation" of Palestinians.

However, singer-songwriter Diana Krall, who is married to Costello, is still expected to go ahead with a performance in Israel in August.

In recent months, various Palestinian groups have stepped up a campaign for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel to protest its occupation of Palestinian territory.

Sources; http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100606/twl-us-rockers-the-pixies-cancel-israel-3cd7efd_1.html