GAZA CITY, 15 March 2006 — Israeli forces yesterday raided a Jericho prison, killed two Palestinians and arrested a jailed resistance leader after US and British monitors withdrew from the jail.
Ahmed Saadat, leader of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) accused by Israel of involvement in the 2001 killing of an Israeli Cabinet minister, surrendered with his hands up after a daylong siege during which tanks and helicopters shelled the prison and bulldozers tore down part of it. Israeli forces captured five other prominent prisoners that they sought.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Israel had coordinated its raid with Britain and the United States. “Clearly, there is some sort of coordination,” he told Al-Jazeera television by telephone. “This (withdrawal of US and British monitors) raises obvious question marks.”
The world’s largest Muslim group also said Britain and the United States were to blame for the raid, urging the international community to condemn what it said was a move that would escalate “violence and extremism” throughout the world.
“The governments of Britain and the United States bear direct and serious responsibility for what happened in the prison and escalating what took place later,” said a statement from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Moussa said he was in touch with Arab and international leaders, including UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to “bring a swift and complete end to this dangerous and strange (Israeli) intervention.”
“This is a dangerous indicator about Israel’s future policies,” he added.
Britain said it warned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that monitors would leave the prison. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a House of Commons question session that Britain and the United States had repeatedly told the Palestinian Authority about security problems at the prison, and had urged it to do more to ensure the monitors’ safety.
But US officials said Israel received advance word from the United States that foreign monitors were preparing to withdraw from the prison. US officials told Reuters Washington had given Israel a copy of a March 8 letter it sent to Abbas saying monitors could be withdrawn at once unless security conditions were met.
A guard and a prisoner were killed in clashes with the Israelis at the jail where Saadat had been held since 2002 under US and British supervision. At least 10 people were wounded.
Israeli soldiers first blew up the outer wall of the prison compound, then brought up bulldozers which began to take the building apart room by room as guards exchanged fire sporadically with the besieging troops.
Around 300 prisoners surrendered during the raid.
Furious Palestinians attacked offices linked to the United States and Europe in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and torched the British Council building in Gaza City. Palestinian gunmen also kidnapped nine foreigners, including an American university professor, and aid agencies pulled their foreign staff out of Palestinian areas. Two of them, including the American, were later freed.
One PFLP gunman was killed in a clash with police trying to prevent kidnappings.
Israel accuses Saadat, 51, of ordering the killing of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001. The PFLP said it assassinated Zeevi to avenge the killing of one of its leaders.
Israel had agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority to keep Saadat in Jericho prison in a deal to end an Israeli siege of Yasser Arafat’s compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah in May 2002.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the raid a “massive provocation” that could spark major unrest. Saadat’s seizure would weaken Abbas and other moderates, he added.
— Additional input from agencies
