NPR talk of the nation and all other media i found say the israeli army raided a few minutes after the british and american monitors left. palestinians are convincd it was collusion.
funny how new york times lies about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/....
British and American prison monitors, who were watching over the six prisoners, left the Jericho jail earlier this week after raising concerns about their own security and the lack of Palestinian compliance with a 2002 agreement that set the conditions for imprisoning the six.
the jerusalem post told a little truth:
http://www.jpost.com/....
But despite the lack of coordination, the army was not completely taken by surprise and had been preparing for the operation over the last several days. While the forces were not deployed at Jericho's front door, they were on standby and succeeded in arriving at the prison compound within a matter of minutes after the foreign guards withdrew. Senior officers, including OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh told reporters Tuesday night that Israel only made its final decision to act after soldiers stationed at the IDF checkpoint at the entrance to the Palestinian city saw the prison guards pass through.
"We saw them pass through the checkpoint and then realized that the prisoners including Sa'adat were left unguarded," a senior officer told The Jerusalem Post in the mid-afternoon on the outskirts of Jericho. "At that point, knowing that the PA would not behave responsibly, we were left with no choice but to invade the city."
the secular socialists, popular front for the liberation of palestine had been following the cease fire.
"We warn the leaders of Zionist terrorism not to commit a crime of assassinating the leader of the Front," Maher al-Taher, a Damascus-based PFLP leader, told Al Jazeera television.