Palestinian militants surrender at jail

updated 2:50 p.m. ET March 14, 2006

JERICHO, West Bank - Six Palestinian militants holed up inside a Palestinian prison surrendered to Israeli forces Tuesday, almost 10 hours after soldiers using helicopters, tanks and bulldozers raided the compound to seize militants who killed an Israeli Cabinet minister.

The militants who surrendered included Ahmed Saadat, leader of a radical PLO faction and mastermind of the 2001 assassination of the minister, the Israeli military said.

Israel’s West Bank commander, Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, said 15 other militants also were arrested in the raid.

As the militants surrendered, some 15,000 Palestinians led by dozens of gunmen firing in the air marched in Gaza City to protest the raid. The demonstrators, chanting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans, marched toward the Palestinian parliament building.

Palestinian security forces rounded up foreigners for their protection throughout the day after Palestinian gunmen kidnapped nine foreigners to protest the raid.

A police-escorted convoy of vans carrying 15 foreigners sped through Gaza City on Tuesday, heading to the Gaza-Israel border crossing.

Some journalists were in the vans, along with an American couple and their three children. Three Palestinian police vehicles led the way.

Accused of killing cabinet minister
Saadat, accused by Israel of involvement in the killing of an Israeli cabinet minister, was among a group of prisoners who walked out of Jericho jail with their hands up, officials said.

Earlier, an American teacher kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen — who threatened to kill him if Saadat was injured — was freed, militants and the school that employed him said. Elsewhere, furious Palestinians attacked offices linked to America and Europe, torching the British Council building in Gaza City.

Saif Dahlah / AFP - Getty Images Douglas Johnson, an English teacher at the Arab American University, was kidnapped in Kabatiyeh, near the West Bank city of Jenin, on Tuesday. The 45-year-old Johnson was later released.

The Palestinians blamed the Jericho raid on the British and Americans, who removed their monitors from the jail just before the Israeli raid. There were a total of 200 prisoners and guards in the jail at the time of the raid.

The operation was the most high-profile Israeli incursion into a Palestinian town in months and came just two weeks before Israeli elections. Palestinians condemned the raid as a campaign stunt, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the United States and British governments.

Observers leave citing security concerns
American and British observers who had monitored the jail for the past four years withdrew just before the raid, citing security concerns.

The Israeli government ordered the raid because the monitors were withdrawn, the army said. Israel said the Palestinians were to blame for violating an agreement on detaining the Palestinians accused of killing the Israeli minister in 2001.

Saadat told Al-Jazeera, which broadcast the raid throughout the Arab world, that he held Abbas partly responsible, saying he should have gotten him out of prison sooner. As he spoke, an explosion was heard in the background, and Saadat said: “I can’t continue. The situation is very difficult.” Then he hung up.

Kevin Frayer / AP file Head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat, is 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.

In Jericho, dozens of prisoners in their underwear came out of the prison building and were searched and blindfolded by Israeli troops. Some of them were taken away. Israeli officials said a number of prisoners were being targeted for arrest, including the five involved in the assassination.

A senior Israeli military official said the inmates had to surrender or face death.

Hundreds of Israeli troops entered the town Tuesday morning and surrounded the prison, calling over loudspeakers for prisoners to give themselves up. The troops then burst through the front gate of the jail with a bulldozer, drove inside in armored personnel carriers and engaged in a shootout with Palestinian police, said local security commander Akram Rajoub.

One policeman standing near the gate was killed, as was a prisoner, security officials said.

Two large explosions were heard at the prison and thick smoke filled the sky. Helicopters flew overhead.

Youths in the town threw rocks at the Israeli soldiers, and Palestinians burned tires in the roads. Troops were later heard calling for all the prisoners and guards to come out of the jail.

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