Written question asked by Keith Vaz (Labour) on Tuesday, 21 March 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 23 March 2006. It was answered by Kim Howells (Labour) on Tuesday, 18 April 2006 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Jericho Prison

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the Government had advance knowledge of the Israeli raid on Jericho prison following the withdrawal of the British Independent Monitors.

Answer: Israel had made clear that it would not allow the detainees involved in the assassination of the Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehevam Ze'evi, to go free. However, the Israeli authorities did not discuss the details of its operational plan with us. We also did not share the details of our withdrawal plan with the Israeli authorities. The first time the Israeli and the Palestinian authorities knew of the exact date of our withdrawal was on 14 March when we had withdrawn our monitors.

Secondary information