Special report: Israeli raid on prison

    GAZA, March 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Palestinian militants kidnapped on Tuesday eight foreigners in four separate abductions in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources and witnesses reported.

    The sources said that two employees at the American school in northern Gaza, one Australian man and one American woman, were kidnapped by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

    Two French women were seized near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza,and the fifth, a man holding Swiss nationality and he was the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross mission, was kidnapped in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.

    The Palestinian militants stormed into al-Deera Hotel in Gaza City beachside and abducted three foreigners, two Korean men and one French woman, said the sources, adding that the three were journalists.

    The PFLP claimed responsibility for the abductions in retaliation for an Israeli raid on Jericho prison and the Israeli attempt to detain Ahmed Saadat, the PFLP Secretary General who is imprisoned there.

    Meanwhile, witnesses said that dozens of masked Palestinian militants attacked the buildings of the British Council and the European Union in Gaza city and set fire inside.

    "I saw masked young men are throwing stones at the British Council building and many of them are climbing the walls and jumped inside, and burned some of the furnitures," said Saed Al-Madhoun, a witness.

    Militants and young men wearing red hats, which indicated that they were PFLP members, smashed window glasses at the building of the European Union, according to witnesses.

    The violent attacks on the two foreign buildings came after Israeli army broke into Jericho jail in the West Bank, trying to arrest Saadat and his followers who were accused of murdering former Israeli tourism minister Rahbaam Zeivi in 2001. Enditem