Palestinian militants today launched a wave of attacks on British and European targets after an Israeli raid on a prison in Jericho.
Three foreign nationals, including a Swiss Red Cross official, were reported kidnapped and the British Council building in Gaza City was set on fire.
The attacks were in apparent retaliation for the withdrawal of British and US human rights monitors from the jail, which was followed about half an hour later by the Israeli military raid.
The troops entered demanding the surrender of six prisoners inside. A gun battle ensued that left one Palestinian police officer dead.
A prisoner was also killed, but it was not clear whether he was one of those wanted by Israel.
Tank shells were fired at the prison and bulldozers tore down some of the building's walls. Children threw rocks at the Israeli soldiers and burning tyres were put in the roads.
Troops were later heard calling for all the prisoners and guards to come out.
Dozens of inmates and guards emerged and were ordered to strip to their underwear. The wanted men did not appear to be among them.
The raid on the jail, which holds prisoners accused of assassinating an Israeli cabinet minister, was the most high-profile Israeli incursion into a Palestinian town in months, and came just two weeks before Israel holds national elections.
An Israeli colonel said the inmates must either surrender or face death, but stressed that Israel's aim was to arrest them.
British and US observers had been monitoring the prison since 2002, charged with ensuring that the treatment of inmates conformed to internationally accepted human rights standards, a Foreign Office spokesman said.
‘The three British monitors were withdrawn around 0730 GMT today,’ the spokesman said.
‘We decided we were no longer able to ensure their safety. On March 8, we wrote to [the Palestinian president Mahmoud] Abbas and pointed this out, and that unless the situation improved we would withdraw them.’
He denied that the monitors had had any knowledge the Israelis were about to strike.
Shortly after the raid began, some 300 demonstrators, including dozens of gunmen, marched on the British Council building in Gaza City.
After a brief battle with the gunmen, police protecting the building left, and the building and the cars of people who worked there were torched.
Gunmen also broke into the European commission building and stormed the offices of Amideast, a private organisation that provides English classes and testing services.
‘We don't want to see any Americans here,’ one of the gunmen shouted when Palestinian police approached the Amideast office.
The Foreign Office today warned British nationals to stay away from the West Bank; Britons are already advised against travelling to the Gaza Strip.
Among the six targets of the prison raid is Ahmed Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction.
Saadat, who was elected to the Palestinian legislature in January, is being held for ordering the assassination of the Israeli tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi, in 2001.
Palestinians condemned the prison raid as a campaign stunt for the coming Israeli elections, and Mr Abbas blamed the US and British governments for it.
‘President Abbas strongly condemns this Israeli attack and holds the American and British sides fully responsible for any harm that befalls Saadat and his colleagues,’ the Palestinian leader's office said.
Speaking by telephone from the prison to the Arabic-language satellite TV station al-Jazeera, Saadat vowed to hold out against the Israelis.
‘We are not going to surrender. We are going to face our destiny with courage,’ he said.
In addition, to the five PFLP prisoners, Israel was also demanding the surrender of Fuad Shobaki, the alleged planner of an illegal weapons shipment to the Palestinian Authority several years ago.
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