Palestinians denounce Israeli raid on Jericho prison

JERICHO, West Bank -- Palestinians denounced yesterday Israel's seizure of six militants from a jail, a raid that officials and analysts said had undercut the standing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at a politically delicate moment.

Israeli commentators, meanwhile, agreed that Tuesday's raid on the Palestinian jail had probably boosted acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's political prospects just two weeks before national elections.

In January, Abbas watched his once-dominant Fatah movement lose in parliamentary elections to the radical Islamic group Hamas, and he has sought to get the militant group to moderate its stands toward Israel as it prepares a new government.

Analysts and Palestinian officials said the raid, which ended with the wanted men surrendering and sparked kidnappings of foreigners in the Gaza Strip, embarrassed Abbas, who was already viewed as weak at a time he is struggling to remain relevant in dealing with Israelis. Abbas has called for a resumption of talks with Israelis, for example, while leaders such as Olmert are proposing that Israel set long-term borders on its own. For their part, Israeli officials have blamed Abbas for failing to confront militant groups with force.

Abbas, who cut short a trip to Europe aimed at securing foreign aid for his cash-strapped government, used unusually sharp language yesterday as he condemned the Israeli raid. He called the attack ''an unforgivable crime" and suggested it had been coordinated with American and British officials.

Officials from the two Western allies said Tuesday that their decision to pull monitors out of the prison shortly before the raid was not done in concert with Israel.

''What happened is undoubtedly a crime that cannot be forgiven and an insult aimed at the Palestinian people, and it is a blatant violation of all the agreements between us and them," Abbas told reporters as he toured the demolished Jericho prison. He urged Israel to return the six men to Palestinian custody.

The outgoing foreign minister, Nasser Al-Kidwa, took issue with assertions by US and British officials that the two governments had withdrawn their monitors at the jail because Palestinian authorities could no longer guarantee their safety.

The American and British observers were posted as part of an agreement to ensure that the six men, five of whom are suspected by Israel in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, remained in custody.

The 2002 arrangement, brokered by Americans and British officials, helped end an Israeli military siege of Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israeli troops moved in shortly after the monitors left early Tuesday. The raid came six days after the American and British governments warned Abbas in a letter that they would pull out if Palestinian authorities did not improve safety conditions and tighten oversight of prisoners.

In a statement, Al-Kidwa characterized the letter as ''confusing" and disputed that the monitors were at risk. He said the letter did not appear to suggest that the two governments were about to end their role overseeing the incarceration of Ahmed Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the five others.

Israel said it acted to prevent the Palestinians from releasing Saadat, who in January was elected to the Palestinian parliament, and the other men.

Israeli officials said recent comments by Abbas and Hamas leaders suggested Saadat, suspected of planning and ordering the 2001 killing, might soon be freed.