On March 14th, Israeli troops raided a prison in Jericho in the West Bank in an effort to arrest or assassinate Ahmed Sa'adat, Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and a number of other prisoners.

From The Egyptian Newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly:
Saadat's capture concluded an extraordinarily violent day, even by the standards of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It had begun soon after dawn when British security officials monitoring the prison abandoned their post. Within 20 minutes Israeli army soldiers, tanks, bulldozers and helicopters had encircled the compound. For the next 10 hours they shot, strafed, pounded and bulldozed the prison in a graduated assault intended to extract Saadat and his co-detainees. Two Palestinian police officers and a prisoner were killed: 18 Palestinians were injured. Speaking to Al-Jazeera television by mobile phone, Saadat said he was "ready to meet [his] destiny". At around 6.30pm a Palestinian Authority Brigade commander mediating between him and the army told him what it was. Fifteen minutes later Saadat surrendered.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas -- then in Europe prevailing on EU countries to maintain aid to the PA -- slammed the British monitors' abandonment as a gross violation of the agreement made between them, the PA, the US and Israel in May 2002. This had been a basic trade in which Saadat and the five other prisoners would be detained in a Palestinian jail under British and American supervision in return for their and Yasser Arafat's release from an Israeli siege in Ramallah.
Amnesty Holds Israel Responsible for Prisoners Safety | Israel's attack on Jericho: Palestinians remain without protection | PFLP Statement re the Jericho Prison assault | ISM: testimony from the Jericho prison attack

As news leaked out of Israel's actions and the US and British cooperation in the action, the British Council offices in Gaza were set on fire and several Western aid workers were briefly taken hostage. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) also heaped blame on the US and Britain, warning this would escalate "violence and extremism" throughout the world. "The governments of Britain and the United States bear direct and serious responsibility for what happened in the prison and escalating what took place later," the OIC said in a statement cited by Reuters.
Palestinians went on strike across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Wednesday but in Israel sentiments were very different; images of Palestinian police and prisoners being paraded in their underwear after their surrender resulted in a major boost to the ruling Kadima party, which is up for election on March 28th. Rifat Odeh Kassis writes for The Electronic Intifada, "Palestinians know from experience that before every election Israel becomes more brutal", but another reason for the raid was to send Hamas the message that "they will not be accepted and the agreements between Israel and the previous PA are no longer valid".
While the British government is facing possible legal action over its decision to withdraw monitors from the Jericho prison, Abbas has also taken some of the blame. Fatah officials have asked the Palestinian president to resign, dissolve the Palestinian Authority and return responsibility for the occupied territories to Israel in protest against Tel Aviv's actions.
Democracy Now: Israeli Raid on Palestinian Prison Ignites Crisis in Occupied Territories | Israeli attack on Jericho jail sparks uprising in Gaza and West Bank | Britain and US complicit in Jericho raid, says Abbas | Abbas rushes home after jail raid