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Palestininan security prisoner stripped to prove they carried no explosives. (AP)
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Zeevi assassination mastermind Ahmed Saadat (AP)
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| By israelinsider staff and partners March 14, 2006 |
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| AP |
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The day-long IDF siege of a Jericho prison complex ended after nightfall on Tuesday with the sudden surrender of Ahmed Saadat and the other murderers of cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi in in a Jerusalem hotel in 2001, as well as Fuad Shubaki, a senior PA official responsible for financing the captured armament boat Karine A. The six are to be transferred to prison in Israel, officials said.
The surrender followed heavy gunfire directed at the prison complex Tuesday evening.
As night fell in Jericho, senior IDF officers had been concerned over the increasing risk to the large numbers of soldiers besieging the prison, Israel Radio reported. Palestinians were throwing molotov cocktails and other objects at the soldiers, witnesses said.
It was expected that if the six refused to surrender, IDF bulldozers and other armor would enter the prison and demolish the structures, crushing the prisoners under them.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas jad said last week that he was prepared to free Saadat, drawing an angry response from Israel.
Thoughout the day, Israeli forces surrounded a jail in the West Bank town of Jericho and called on six Palestinian prisoners, including the mastermind of the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister, to give themselves up. Initially they refused, and Israeli armor broke into the prison compound.
A Palestinian policeman was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops at the prison. He was standing near the prison gate when he was killed, officials said. Another one man -- reportedly an al-Aksa terrorist -- was reported wounded in an exchange and subsequently died. Several other Palestinians were wounded. No Israelis were injured.
Al-Jazeera screened images of prisoners other than those being sought stripping to their underwear to show they carried no weapons. Israeli tanks and bulldozers were seen inside the prison compound after breaking through to capture the wanted prisoners.
Ahed Abu Ghoulmi, one of the six inmates, speaking by phone from the prison, said the Israeli forces were surrounding the prison, denying earlier reports that troops were inside.
"Our prison is surrounded on all sides by Israelis. They are asking us over loudspeaker to come out," Abu Ghoulmi said. "We will not come out under any circumstances."
There are also reports that the Palestinian population of the town, encouraged by the media, are trying to attack Israeli forces with Molotov cocktails and stones.
The key prisoner, Ahmed Saadat, is being held for ordering the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister in 2001. Saadat is head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction. Four other PFLP members, including the gunman who killed Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam "Gandhi" Zeevi, are also held at the prison.
In addition, the Israeli forces were demanding that Fuad Shobaki, the alleged mastermind of an illegal weapons shipment to the Palestinian Authority several years ago, surrender to Israeli forces.
U.S. and British guards, who were also guarding Saadat under an earlier arrangement with Israel, had left the prison earlier Tuesday, Palestinian officials said, apparently fearing for their lives if the Palestinians stormed the prison to release the prisoners, as they had threatened to do.
It was their departure, reportedly uncoordinated but not a surprise, that triggered the Israeli action. On March 8, British officials indicated that departure of the international observers was a matter of days due to the deteriorating security situation.
Dozens of security prisoners, including the six most wanted, were taken by the IDF for interrogation by Israel's Shin Bet security agency. Prisoners jailed for non-security violations were handed over to the custody of Palestinian officials.
Those believed to have been involved in the Zeevi assassination will be tried in Israel.
The AP contributed to this report.
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