EU border monitors return to Gaza

European inspectors resumed work at the Gaza-Egypt border Wednesday, a day after cutting short their shift following a spate of kidnappings of foreigners by Palestinian gunmen.

Photo: EU border monitors return to Gaza

Angry Palestinians had vandalized several Western offices and seized 11 foreigners Tuesday to protest what they saw as British and American complicity in an Israeli grab of several top Palestinian prisoners from a West Bank jail. All but one of the foreigners were freed by Wednesday.

A spokesman for the 65-member observer mission said foreign inspectors left the Rafah border terminal between Egypt and Gaza an hour earlier than usual Tuesday, amid tensions in the coastal strip.

When they returned to work on Wednesday, they found their Palestinian police security detail had been tripled from two to six escort vehicles, said mission spokesman Julio de La Guardia.

De la Guardia said the Palestinian Authority promised to post 300 police officers at the terminal round the clock.

The foreign inspectors are deployed at the border as part of a U.S.-brokered deal between Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians, following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005.

On Tuesday, Palestinians in Gaza and some areas of the West Bank went on a rampage against British, American, EU and other international institutions, after the Israeli army raided a Palestinian prison in the West Bank town of Jericho and snatched detained Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ahmed Saadat.

The Israeli operation was launched minutes after British and American observers pulled out of the jail compound, prompting Palestinian accusations of complicity, reports the AP.