A US official has denied any US-Israeli coordination in this morning's raid on a prison in Jericho but confirmed that American monitors pulled out just before Israeli forces moved in.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
The United States and Britain withdrew their monitors this morning from the prison because of apparent security concerns.
The American and British monitors provided supervision at the prison complex in the West Bank city of Jericho which holds Mr Ahmed Saadat, leader of militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and other militants.
Saadat is accused by Israel of involvement in the assassination of an Israeli minister.
"The Palestinian Authority has consistently failed to meet its obligations" under an agreement which provided for monitors at the prison, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement.
The United States and Britain informed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a letter dated March 8th that the monitors would be withdrawn because security improvements had not been made, US and British officials said.
"The IDF (Israeli forces) moving in was subsequent and a separate issue," said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, spokeswoman for the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem.
But she said that Israel was provided with a copy of the March 8 letter to Abbas as required under the agreement. That letter made clear that the United States and Britain intended to withdraw.