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JERICHO, West Bank - Palestinian prisoners surrendered to Israeli forces after the soldiers burst into their jail in the West Bank town of Jericho on Tuesday in a deadly bid to gain custody of militants convicted of killing an Israeli Cabinet minister.
But the targets of the siege refused to come out despite Israel’s threats to kill them. During the operation, a Palestinian officer and a prisoner were killed in a shootout between Palestinian police and Israeli forces, Palestinian security officials said.
The army fired tank shells, a helicopter launched a missile at the prison and bulldozers tore down some of the building’s walls, but the top wanted man, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ahmed Saadat, remained defiant.
“We are not going to surrender, we are going to face our destiny with courage,” he told Al-Jazeera television in a telephone interview from the jail.
Saadat, who was elected to the Palestinian legislature in January, is being held for ordering the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001, along with four other PFLP members, including the gunman who killed Zeevi.
But after Hamas won the Jan. 25 Palestinian parliamentary elections, top leaders of the militant group said they planned to free Saadat.
Head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat, seen here at a Jericho prison on Jan. 25. Saadat, right, is in prison for ordering the assassination of the Israeli tourism minister in 2001, and was elected to the Palestinian legislature in January.
Smoke rose from where the missile struck inside the compound of the facility in the West Bank town of Jericho. The Israeli military said 170 prisoners were in custody.
Dozens of prisoners in their underwear came out of the building, where they were being searched and blindfolded by Israeli troops. Some of them were taken away. None of them appeared to be the six targeted men.
The operation was the most high-profile Israeli incursion into a Palestinian town in months and came just two weeks before Israel holds hard-fought national elections. Palestinians condemned the raid as a campaign stunt, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the United States and British governments.
Attacks on U.S., U.K. buildingsU.S. and British observers who had monitored the jail for the past four years withdrew early Tuesday morning — just before the raid — citing security concerns. The Israeli government ordered the raid because the monitors were withdrawn, the army said, blaming the Palestinians for violating the agreement regarding the prisoners.
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw issued a statement Tuesday to the British parliament saying the observers were withdrawn because the Palestinian Authority had ignored repeated British requests for guarantees regarding their security.
In response, Palestinian militants set fire to the British council office in Gaza, and militants and Palestinian police earlier exchanged gunfire, witnesses said. Militants also stormed into the European Union compound in Gaza on Tuesday, smashing windows and causing other damage, witnesses said.
Palestinian militants also kidnapped a Red Cross official believed to be from Switzerland from his office in Gaza amid anger over Israel’s storming of a jail in the West Bank, witnesses said.
Earlier, a spokesman for the militant group, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, warned American and British citizens to leave the territories or they would be kidnapped. “We call upon all American and British citizens to leave Palestinian territories immediately otherwise they will be subject to kidnapping and other consequences,” said Abu Qusai, the spokesman.
Militants also stormed the building of a U.S.-based educational organization in Gaza. The militants entered the building, operated by America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, and caused minor damage.
At the prison, one policeman standing near the gate was killed in the shootout and a prisoner was also killed, security officials said. It was not clear if the prisoner was one of those wanted by Israel.
Two large explosions were heard at the prison and thick smoke filled the sky. Children in the town threw rocks at the Israeli soldiers and burning tires were put in the roads. Troops were later heard calling for all the prisoners and guards to come out of the jail.
Prisoners: ‘We will not come out’The prisoners said they would not surrender.
“Our prison is surrounded on all sides by Israelis. They are asking us over loudspeaker to come out,” Ahed Abu Ghoulmi, one of the targeted prisoners, told The Associated Press by telephone. “We will not come out under any circumstances.”
Israel was also demanding the surrender of four other members of the PFLP, including the gunman who killed Zeevi, and Fuad Shobaki, the alleged mastermind of an illegal weapons shipment to the Palestinian Authority several years ago.
The six men were being held at the jail under the supervision of British and American wardens in accordance with a deal worked out between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in April 2002. The agreement allowed the prisoners to be transferred from Yasser Arafat’s besieged compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where they were holed up during Israel’s operation Defensive Shield in April 2002.
Israeli hard-liners chafed at the deal, believing it allowed an assassin to escape justice. Palestinians also criticized the agreement, which forced them to jail one of their top militant leaders under Israeli pressure.
Abbas calls on observers to returnAbbas lashed out at the Americans and the British, saying they withdrew the monitors without telling him, violating the 2002 agreement. He said he would hold them responsible if anything happens to the prisoners.
“The authority denounces this aggression and calls on the Israeli government to withdraw immediately from Jericho and to stop all the military acts, and it calls on the American and British observers to return immediately,” he said in a statement.
Incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, called the raid “a dangerous escalation against the Palestinian leaders and freedom fighters.”
“We warn against the continuation of this destructive attitude, especially harming the lives of freedom fighters. The Palestinian blood is becoming material for the competition of the Israeli election,” he said.
Dozens of gunmen from the PFLP fired in the air in the Gaza Strip to protest the raid.