Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Six Palestinian terrorists wanted by Israel turned themselves over to the Israeli army after nightfall after Israeli troops blasted their way into a Palestinian prison in the West Bank town of Jericho Tuesday, one week after Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, under pressure from Hamas, said he would consider releasing top terrorists from the facility.
The Israeli army said it launched the operation to prevent the release of Ahmed Saadat, the head of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorists incarcerated there.
Israel says Saadat ordered the assassination of former Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi at a Jerusalem hotel in 2001. Saadat has been held at the Jericho jail in the Jordan Valley for more than three years, monitored by U.S. and British civilians.
Israel wants the murderers of Ze'evi brought to Israel to stand trial.
Israel decided to nab the terrorists now, rather than chasing them in "hot pursuit" all over the territories, said a senior Israeli source who asked not to be named.
Saadat and four others connected to Ze'evi's murder as well as Fuad Shubaki -- mastermind of a huge weapons' smuggling attempt from Iran destined for the PA - turned themselves over to the Israeli army after a nine-hour siege.
Adding a political twist to the story, Tuesday's operation comes just two weeks before Israel's general election. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly ordered the operation in Jericho himself.
Hamas Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh called the operation a "dangerous escalation" and accused Israel of storming the prison to boost Olmert's election campaign.
'Cahoots'
The Palestinian Authority blamed the United States and Britain for what happened at the Jericho prison. U.S. and British monitors left the prison shortly before Israel stormed it, and P.A. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused the U.S. and Britain of collaborating with Israel.
At least one Palestinian security guard was killed in the gun battle with Israeli troops and at least a dozen more were injured.
The American and the British side bear "full responsibility" for any harm to the prisoners, including Saadat, Abbas said in a statement. (At last report, Saadat was holed up in the prison, refusing to be taken alive.)
Both the U.S. and Britain denied any charges of collusion with Israel. The accusations are false, said U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv Stewart Tuttle. "The departure from the Jericho site was not coordinated with Israel," he said.
"Today's pullout of monitors was not coordinated with Israel," said a spokesperson at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv.
In a joint letter to Abbas on March 8, the U.S. and Britain warned the Palestinian leader that they would withdraw their monitors from the jail if security conditions did not improve.
The letter said the P.A. has failed to provide secure conditions for the U.S. and U.K. personnel working at the Jericho jail -- despite repeated diplomatic protests about the situation.
"The pending handover of governmental power to a political party that has repeatedly called for the release of the Jericho detainees also calls into question the political sustainability of the monitoring mission," the letter also said.
Senior Israeli sources also dismissed the idea of prior coordination between Israel, the U.S. and Britain, calling it a "conspiracy theory."
"Every time the Palestinians are in a bind, they say it's a conspiracy," said a senior Israeli source who asked not to be named.
"The situation in the prison was deteriorating," the Israeli source. "There was no law and order and no control. The terms of the incarceration were a farce. They were conducting business from their cells."
Any collusion, he said, was between the Palestinian jailers and the prisoners.
Furious backlash
The storming of the Jericho prison sparked a wave of kidnappings of foreigners in Gaza - some of whom were later released, radio reports said.
Later, the PFLP threatened to kill other hostages. Press reports said they include an American, two Australian teachers from the American school in Gaza, and several journalists. European Union monitors stationed at the border between Gaza and Egypt also reportedly fled to avoid kidnap.
A spokesman for the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, part of Abbas' Fatah faction, called on all American and British nationals to leave the Palestinian territories within two hours or face abduction.
British and American concerns in Gaza also were attacked. Palestinians set fire to the British Council offices in Gaza. Militants also stormed the building of the America Mideast Educational and Training Services, causing minor damage.
No American officials have been based in Gaza since a roadside bomb killed three Americans guarding a diplomatic convoy there in October 2003, the embassy said.
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