RAMALLAH, Dec. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- A group of gunmen on Saturday stormed a hotel in the West Bank city of Nablus where many foreigners stayed, demanding foreigners and European Union monitors to immediately leave the Palestinian territories, Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said.  

    Witnesses said that the gunmen, identifying themselves as members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which is an armed wing of the mainstream Fatah movement, broke into the castle-style hotelin Nablus.

   Security sources said that the gunmen demanded the EU monitors to leave the Palestinian territories, protesting against the Israeli ban on East Jerusalem residents to vote in the Jan. 25Palestinian legislative elections.

   The EU monitors are overseeing the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border, which was opened late November in accordance with a U.S.-brokered deal between Israel and the Palestinians.  

    Meanwhile, 15 Fatah candidates declared withdrawal from the January elections on Friday in protest against the Israeli ban.  

    Key Mideast peace brokers of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia urged Israel in a Wednesday statement to work with the PNA to ensure that East Jerusalem residents can vote in the legislative elections.

   A statement by the Quartet Committee said it was essential that Israel and the Palestinians started immediately coordinating election preparations.

   Israel had previously said that it would not allow East Jerusalem residents to vote in the elections since the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), a group sworn to Israel's destruct, is slated to participate and widely expected to do well in the polls.

   But the Jewish state backed off from the ban threat earlier this week as officials said the government was considering polls in East Jerusalem.

   Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War and thenannexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.Palestinians want it as the capital of their future state. Enditem