MIDDLE EAST: Israelis and Palestinians react after day of violence across the West Bank and Gaza

Record ID: 836900

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Israelis and Palestinians react after day of violence across the West Bank and Gaza
  • Date: 15th March 2006
  • Summary: FRONT PAGES OF ISRAELI NEWSPAPERS WITH NEWS OF THE JERICHO PRISON SITUATION (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 30th March 2006 13:00
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  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA96ODHT13NQIFAL2AV50OXVRHT
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  • Story Text: The scene outside Jericho's prison remained tense on Wednesday morning (March 15) following a day of violence when Israeli troops seized a Palestinian militant leader by mounting a day-long siege on the prison compound that Israel said sent a powerful message to a future Hamas-led government.
    Ahmed Saadat, accused by Israel of involvement in the 2001 killing of an Israeli cabinet minister, surrendered on Tuesday (March 14) at a Jericho jail, whose walls came tumbling down in a tank and bulldozer assault launched minutes after foreign monitors left.
    The 10-hour operation, praised by interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's main opponents in a March 28 general election which he is expected to win, could strengthen the veteran politician's security credentials as the campaign enters the home stretch.
    But the raid drew fierce criticism from Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza and militants vowed revenge for Saadat's arrest.
    During the Jericho raid a Palestinian guard and prisoner were killed which led to threats of retaliation from Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which Saadat heads. Israeli police declared a security alert.
    On the streets of Jerusalem heightened security was visible on Wednesday morning and newspaper headlines were splashed with the news of Tuesday's violence.
    "About yesterday, I'm very upset actually. I'm very extremely upset, on both ends. On the one hand, the Palestinians didn't stick to the agreement. I don't know the exact details, but I understand that there were agreements about who the jailers would be and under what kind of regime - and for the Israelis for just jumping in and being very violent," Hanna Segal, a Jerusalem resident, said.
    "I think it was necessary. Unfortunately, when something like this happens - we're talking about a minister in a government who was assassinated. There can't be a situation where his murderers are allowed to walk free, and Israel has to do whatever they can in order to prevent that - even if this is what it takes unfortunately," Arieh Halivni, another Jerusalem resident, said.
    Israel's seizure of the grey-haired Saadat, 51, followed suggestions by Hamas and Abbas, who cut short a visit to Europe after the raid, that he might be freed.
    Israeli forces captured five other prominent prisoners, including Fuad al-Shobaki, a former aide to the late Yasser Arafat suspected of overseeing an attempt to smuggle arms from Iran into Gaza aboard a ship seized by Israeli commandos in the Red Sea in 2002.
    The arrests prompted demonstrations throughout Gaza and the West Bank on Tuesday evening and resident of Gaza City and Bethlehem declared a workers' general strike on Wednesday in protest at the Jericho violence.
    Shops remained closed on Wednesday morning and residents took part in demonstrations protesting the Israeli army's operation in Jericho.
    "I would say the Americans and the British handed Mr. Saadat to Israel - to the Israeli authorities. This is an illegal act. It is an aggression against all the Palestinian people. We reject all these acts," Dr. Victor. J. Batareen, Mayor of Bethlehem, said.
    Palestinian gunmen in Gaza and the West Bank abducted nine foreigners in a display of anger at the pullout of U.S. and British monitors supervising Saadat's incarceration. Militants also fired rockets from Gaza into Israel, causing no casualties.
    Two Australians, two French women, an American and a Swiss national seized at gunpoint were later released but two French nationals and a Korean were being held.
    Saadat was sent to jail in Jericho in 2002 under an internationally-brokered deal that ended an Israeli siege that year of Arafat's compound in Ramallah, where the PFLP leader was holed up.
    Rolling up to the prison, Israeli soldiers first blew up an outer wall in its compound and then brought in bulldozers which began to tear the building apart room by room as guards exchanged fire sporadically with the besieging troops.
    Israel says Saadat ordered the killing of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001.
    The PFLP, one of the smaller groups waging a Palestinian uprising, said it assassinated Zeevi, a far-right former general who used to keep a lion caged at his military headquarters, to avenge the killing of one of its leaders.
    U.S. and British officials said monitors left because the Palestinians had failed to implement requested security improvements. The Palestinian Authority condemned the move and said it held the United States and Britain responsible for the consequences.
    Palestinian official Ghassan Al-Khatib said the raid promoted a continuance of violence in the region.
    "I think the Israeli aggression yesterday on the Palestinian prison in Jericho is a very dangerous president that we condemn and criticise. We believe that this a violation of an agreement that is unjustified because the Palestinians have been fulfilling their part of the agreement. And I think this is a provocation that encourages violent reactions from the Palestinian side at a time when the Palestinian authority is trying our best to maintain calm and to try to overcome exchange of violence between Israelis and Palestinians," Al-Khatib said.
    Approximately 300 prisoners were taken out during the raid.
    Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has cut short a trip to Europe after the raid on the prison in Jericho. He left the European Parliament headquarters in Strasbourg in the early morning hours of Wednesday (March 15) and was on his way back to Ramallah.
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