Palestinian gunmen are holding three foreign hostages, two French and one Korean, in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli raid on the Jericho jail, which netted a militant leader but sparked a violent reaction in the territories, much of it aimed at British and US interests.
Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), late on Tuesday left the cell block where he had taken refuge, along with other militants jailed with him for their role in the 2001 murder of a far-right Israeli minister.
The raid was condemned by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who cut short a trip to Europe to return home after news of the raid.
He was on the first day of the trip, aimed at securing aid for Palestinians.
Calm urged
A US State Department spokesman urged both sides to exercise "calm and restraint", as did the United Nations Security Council.
The European Parliament's president condemned the Israeli raid and the wave of kidnappings that followed.
"We strongly condemn the attack on the prison in Jericho by Israeli forces as well as the resulting kidnappings and acts of violence in the Palestinian territories today," said Joseph Borrell, head of the European Union's directly-elected assembly in a statement.
But an Israeli foreign ministry official said the raid was necessary as several militants were about to be freed, according to a BBC report.
However there are mounting questions from the global community about why international monitors at the prison were removed just minutes before the raid.
Palestinian reaction
The PFLP vowed the seizure of its jailed leader and other militants would "not pass without retaliation", and all Palestinian factions later united in calling a general strike for Wednesday.
Palestinian security forces, issued with orders to respond with live fire to attacks against Western interests, are on high alert to prevent a repeat of the security anarchy.
Saadat and three other PFLP members had been jailed in Jericho, a prison under US and British supervision, since August 2002 after his militant faction claimed the 2001 killing of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi.
Amid security chaos that threatens to deal a further blow to the moribund peace process, one South Korean and two French journalists, were kidnapped at gunpoint from a luxury Palestinian hotel on the Gaza City seafront.
The two French journalists were identified as Caroline Laurent, a correspondent for Elle magazine, and SIPA agency photographer Alfred Yacobzadeh, who is facing his second hostage ordeal after being kidnapped in Beirut during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.
South Korea is sending an envoy to the Gaza Strip to help secure the release of their national.
France has called for the immediate release of the hostages.
"I appeal to all sides to show restraint and responsibility. We should do everything possible to prevent the Palestinian territories descending into violence," said French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy in a statement.
Israeli troops had pounded the prison compound with tank and missile fire throughout the day in a bid to force the militants' surrender.
Two Palestinian security guards were killed and 26 others wounded, five of them critically.
The operation came minutes after the three British monitors, part of a team that normally also includes Americans, were withdrawn from the prison, prompting furious charges of collusion from the Palestinians.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw denied the charges, saying the monitors were pulled out for their safety.
Hundreds of armed Palestinians reacted to the Israeli action by storming the British cultural centre in the Gaza Strip and set fire to it while gunmen barged into an American office used to teach English in Gaza City.
In the West Bank town of Ramallah, the British cultural centre and a branch of HSBC bank were also attacked.