MIDDLE EAST: Palestinians have embarked on a wave of strikes and demonstrations against Israel's dramatic siege of a West Bank jail and capture of the leader of a militant group which it accuses of killing a former cabinet minister.
Israeli security forces went on high alert yesterday amid threats of reprisals over Tuesday's Jericho prison raid which resulted in the arrest of Ahmed Sa'adat (51), head of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The last of 11 foreign hostages kidnapped in Gaza and the West Bank in retaliation for the prison raid were released unharmed yesterday, but Palestinian fury that triggered a wave of kidnappings and arson attacks on Tuesday continued with street protests.
Thousands of angry demonstrators rallied yesterday in the West Bank towns of Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron amid an outburst of anti-western sentiment, which was prompted by suspicions that the US and Britain had colluded with the Israeli authorities by pulling their monitors out of the prison minutes before the assault.
Shops were closed across the West Bank, and in Gaza most students left schools early in a show of protest. Nablus residents observed a general strike. Aid organisations and diplomatic missions withdrew international workers from Gaza on Tuesday night due to security concerns.
Tuesday's day-long siege of the Jericho jail ended with the surrender of Sa'adat and four other prisoners accused of the 2001 murder of Rehavam Zeevi, Israel's hard-line tourism minister, who had likened Palestinians to lice and cancer.
A Palestinian prisoner and guard were killed in the raid, launched minutes after British monitors quit the prison, apparently due to security concerns. British and US monitors had been guarding Sa'adat under an agreement brokered in 2002, but had recently made complaints to the Palestinians about lax security.
The raid dealt another blow to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who called it an illegal operation aimed at humiliating the Palestinian Authority, which had offered to replace the western monitors.
During a tour of the demolished prison complex yesterday, Mr Abbas raised suspicions that there was collusion between monitors at the prison and Israeli forces. "They [ the monitors] left at 9.20am, and the Israelis came in at 9.30am. How can we explain that?" he asked.
However, British prime minister Tony Blair defended the withdrawal of UK monitors, saying it came after careful consideration and months of warnings to the Palestinians.
The raid was a major election boost for Israel's acting prime minister Ehud Olmert ahead of polls on March 28th.
The populist Maariv newspaper illustrated its front page with a image of Mr Sa'adat, blindfolded and handcuffed, beneath the headline "Got 'em!" while the mass circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth opted for "the score is settled" and a "lesson for Hamas".
Israeli officials said that despite potential legal problems, they were determined to put Mr Sa'adat and four fellow activists on trial for murder.