Ahmed Saadat, accused by Israel of involvement in the 2001 killing of an Israeli cabinet minister, was among a group of prisoners who walked out of Jericho jail with their hands up just after nightfall, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
Israeli forces used tanks and bulldozers to smash into the jail and seize Saadat and five other prominent prisoners.
A guard and a prisoner were killed in clashes at the jail where Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Saadat had been since 2002. At least 10 people were wounded.
Islamic militant group Hamas, due to form the next Palestinian government, warned Israel against harming him. Palestinian officials accused Olmert of an election stunt.
Israeli soldiers first blew up the outer wall of the prison compound, then brought up bulldozers that began to take the building apart, room by room, as guards exchanged fire sporadically with the besieging troops.
Israel said it launched the raid because it feared the six could be released, as Hamas had suggested after it had won the election. Gideon Meir, deputy director general of Israel's Foreign Ministry, said Israel had no choice but to act because Hamas leaders and Abbas had spoken about the possibility of freeing the prisoners.
"All of this also comes about due to the fact that Hamas is part of the new Palestinian Authority," Meir told Reuters.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denounced the raid as a "massive provocation" that could lead to unprecedented unrest. "I cannot begin to understand why Israel would want all-out war. Today's military assault would seem to suggest that intent," he said. Israel had agreed to allow to keep Saadat in Jericho prison under international supervision.
US DEFENDS: The United States defended on Tuesday the withdrawal of Western monitors from a West Bank jail and urged calm after an Israeli raid on the prison prompted a spate of kidnappings."We have been in touch with the Israelis and the Palestinians as well as other parties in the region to urge calm and restraint," said a spokesman travelling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a visit to Indonesia.
"We would like to see this resolved as quickly and as peacefully as possible," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Jakarta.
"The monitors were withdrawn because of concerns for their safety. The Palestinians were informed repeatedly about these concerns," he added.
Israeli troops on Tuesday stormed the compound in the town of Jericho to seize Palestinian militants, sparking an unprecedented wave of abductions and anti-Western violence in the Gaza Strip.
Later on Tuesday, Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine surrendered to Israeli troops at the besieged prison.
By that time, at least half a dozen hostages, most of them foreigners, were being held in the territory after the raid to thwart the release of militants held over the assassination of an Israeli minister five years ago. Rice, who was on her first visit to Indonesia, had telephoned her British counterpart Jack Straw on Tuesday evening to be updated on the latest developments, her spokesman said.
DUBAI: Arab League (AL) chief Amr Moussa said on Tuesday Israel had co-ordinated its capture of a jailed Palestinian leader with Britain and the United States, who withdrew monitors from the West Bank jail ahead of the raid.
"Clearly, there is some sort of co-ordination," he told Al Jazeera television by phone. "This (withdrawal of US and UK monitors) raises obvious question marks."
OIC, world's largest Muslim group, also said Britain and the United States were to blame for the raid, urging the international community to condemn what it said was a move that would escalate "violence and extremism" throughout the world.
KOFI ANNAN UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Tuesday for an immediate end to all violence in the Gaza Strip, following a raid by Israeli forces on a West Bank jail.
Annan's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said the UN chief was "deeply concerned" by the death of several Palestinian police officers and the kidnapping of a number of international personnel. The Israeli raid, focused on the capture of a Palestinian militant leader, sparked an unprecedented wave of abductions and anti-Western violence across the Palestinian territories. Dujarric said Annan had called for an immediate end to the violence, respect for civilian lives and urgent steps to restore calm. The Secretary General also calls for the immediate release of those who have been kidnapped, and full respect of the safety of international personnel on the ground," he added.