(14 Mar 2006)
1. Various of armoured vehicles driving past
2. Various of military vehicles
3. Ambulance arriving
4. Group of men raising hands and walking out
5. Blindfolded prisoner wearing underwear being guarded by Israeli soldier
6. Prisoners wearing underwear
7. Digger arriving
8. Prisoner in underwear getting into vehicle
9. Wide of prison with smoke rising
10. Group of women by jail
11. Digger smashing hole into wall
12. Various of prisoners with hands in the air walking out and taking off clothes
13. Various of prisoners in underwear standing in foreground while wall is demolished
14. Prisoners in underwear getting onto military vehicle
15. Prisoners standing as tree is knocked over and car pushed along
16. Black smoke and flames outside prison
17. Women talking to Israeli soldiers
18. Blindfolded prisoners in underwear getting into military vehicle
19. Midshot of blindfolded prisoners
20. Various of smoke rising from prison area
STORYLINE:
Israeli forces driving bulldozers and firing tank shells burst into a Palestinian prison in the West Bank town of Jericho on Tuesday and pulled out dozens of inmates in their underwear in a raid targeting a group of prisoners convicted of killing an Israeli Cabinet minister.
The operation sparked a shootout with Palestinian police that killed one Palestinian officer and a prisoner, Palestinian security officials said.
Despite Israeli threats to kill the prisoners if they did not surrender, the main target of the raid, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ahmed Saadat, remained defiant.
Saadat is jailed for ordering the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001. He won a seat on the Palestinian parliament in the January election despite his incarceration.
The operation was the most high-profile Israeli incursion into a Palestinian town in months and came just two weeks before Israeli elections.
Palestinians condemned the raid as a campaign stunt, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the United States and British governments.
US and British observers who had monitored the jail for the past four years withdrew early Tuesday morning - just before the raid - citing security concerns.
Furious Palestinians attacked offices linked to America and Europe, torching the British Council building in Gaza City and kidnapping a foreign employee of the Red Cross in Gaza.
Gunmen also seized four guests from a Gaza City hotel frequented by foreigners. The guests' nationalities were not immediately known.
The Israeli government ordered the raid because the monitors were withdrawn, the army said, blaming the Palestinians for violating the agreement regarding oversight of the prisoners.
Dozens of prisoners came out of the prison building in their underwear, where they were being searched and blindfolded by Israeli troops.
Some of them were taken away. Israeli officials said a number of prisoners were being targeted for arrest, including the five involved in the 2001 assassination.
Military officials said they had taken 170 Palestinians into custody by Tuesday afternoon, but not the wanted men.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: / ap_archive
Facebook: / aparchives
Instagram: / apnews
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
