Israel storms prison to seize Palestinian militant

By Wafa Amr

JERICHO, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli forces stormed a
West Bank prison on Tuesday to try to seize the leader of a
Palestinian militant group accused of killing an Israeli
minister, storming in after U.S. and British monitors withdrew.

A guard and a prisoner were killed in clashes at Jericho
prison, housing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) leader Ahmed Saadat and five other prominent figures
held under foreign supervision for four years.

Israel’s biggest raid for months, following Palestinian
suggestions that Saadat might be freed, could strengthen the
security credentials of interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert two
weeks ahead of a general election that he is expected to win.

Khaled Meshaal, leader-in-exile of the militant Hamas group
due to form the next Palestinian government, urged Palestinians
to rally at the jail and warned Israel against harming Saadat.

Protests erupted across Palestinian territories, with most
anger directed at Britain and the United States.

Militants set ablaze the British cultural center and
stormed the European Union compound in Gaza. Others kidnapped a
Red Cross official believed to be from Switzerland from his
office in Gaza. France said two of its nationals were also
kidnapped.

Palestinian security forces said they were checking reports
of a separate kidnapping of two other foreigners.

Gunmen fired on a convoy of foreigners being evacuated from
Gaza, but there were no casualties, security sources said.

MILITARY ASSAULT

Israeli soldiers blew up the outer wall of the Jericho jail
compound, then brought up bulldozers. Through loudspeakers,
troops demanded that the militants turn themselves in.

At least 150 Palestinian prisoners and guards gave
themselves up to Israeli forces, Israeli military sources said.
Troops took aside prisoners, some in their underwear. Saadat
and the other five militants were not among them.

“Maybe they will take us alive or dead. We will not
surrender,” Ahmed Saadat told Al Jazeera television by
telephone from the prison. “Our morale is high and we will die
as men.”

Israel said the decision was taken because of reports that
they could be released — a possibility raised by Hamas after
it won a January election and by Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas last week.

Israel says Saadat ordered the killing of Tourism Minister
Rehavam Zeevi in 2001. The PFLP said it assassinated Zeevi to
avenge the killing of one of its leaders.

Abbas’s Palestinian Authority condemned the raid and the
withdrawal of the U.S. and British monitors. U.S. and British
officials said the monitors left because the Palestinians had
failed to implement requested security improvements.

“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 in a statement.

Hamas warned Israel against harming the prisoners and
accused Olmert’s government of “trying to use Palestinian blood
to win the Israeli election.”

The group’s leader Meshaal denounced the Jericho raid.

“We hold Israel responsible for any consequences arising
from this crime and warn them against harming Ahmed Saadat …
and all the prisoners in Jericho,” he said in Saudi Arabia.

Asked about the raid, Egyptian presidential spokesman
Suleiman Awad told Reuters: “Escalation on both sides will not
serve any purpose … both parties should avoid any
escalation.”

“NO RED LINES”

In the Gaza Strip, PFLP militants and protesters set ablaze
the British Council and stormed buildings used by the EU and a
U.S. group. The British Council building in the West Bank city
of Ramallah also came under attack.

“There are no red lines, any European is subject to
kidnapping and killing,” chanted PFLP militants, firing in the
air.

Abbas said last week he was prepared to free Saadat,
drawing an angry response from Israel. Last year Abbas said he
planned to release Saadat but did not.

Israel says it has the right to bring Saadat to justice if
he is released by the Palestinian Authority.

Israel had agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority to
keep Saadat in Jericho prison under international supervision
in a deal to end an Israeli siege of Yasser Arafat’s compound
in the West Bank city of Ramallah in May 2002.

The PFLP has Marxist roots and opposes peace talks with
Israel. The group, which was at the forefront of plane
hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s, is part of Abbas’s umbrella
Palestine Liberation Organization.

Hamas also opposes peace talks with Israel, which it seeks
to destroy. The Islamist faction is expected to present its
government this month after its election triumph in January.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Ariel)