JERICHO, West Bank – Reeling from a blow to his prestige, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas yesterday toured the devastated Jericho prison where Israel spirited away six prisoners, denouncing the raid as an “unforgivable crime,” while Israel pledged to put the six on trial for killing an Israeli Cabinet minister.

Mr. Abbas toured the battered prison after cutting short a trip to Europe to deal with the crisis.

The raid underlined his weakness in the midst of a power struggle with the Islamic Hamas, which swept parliamentary elections, and is forming a government while rejecting the Palestinian leader’s demands to renounce violence and accept interim peace accords with Israel.

“What happened is an unforgivable crime and an insult to the Palestinian people,” Mr. Abbas said as he toured the complex.

Mr. Abbas suggested there was close coordination between foreign inspectors and Israeli forces. He said Israeli troops arrived 10 minutes after foreign monitors left Jericho. Pressed to elaborate, he said: “I’m giving the facts. They [the monitors] left at 9:20 a.m., and the Israelis came in at 9:30 a.m. How can we explain that?”

Israel’s defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, denied that Israel coordinated the raid with American – or that it was an election stunt.

The acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, emerged as the main winner from the affair, bolstering his leadership credentials just two weeks before Israeli elections. Mr. Olmert declared yesterday that the six Palestinian Arabs, including the leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat, will face trial. “They will be indicted according to Israeli law and they will be punished as they deserve,” he said.

The PFLP claimed responsibility for the 2001 assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister, Rehavam Zeevi, in Jerusalem, saying it was retaliation for Israel’s killing of its leader several weeks earlier.

In a 10-hour siege, Israeli forces surrounded the prison and battered it with tank shells and bulldozers until the prisoners surrendered.

Mr. Saadat and other top prisoners were questioned overnight at a small Israeli army base near Jericho. In addition to the five PFLP prisoners, Israel seized the alleged financier of a 2002 seaborne weapons shipment to the Palestinian Arabs, Fuad Shobaki. Israel intercepted the ship.

In all, more than 300 Palestinian Arabs were detained in the Jericho raid. The Israeli military said all but 38 had been released by yesterday.

A Palestinian Arab negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who lives in Jericho, accompanied Mr. Abbas on his inspection and agreed the raid weakened the Palestinian leader.

“This was a severe blow to the Palestinian Authority and to Abu Mazen [Abbas] personally,” Mr. Erekat said, blaming Israel. “We don’t accept any of the blame being thrown into our faces.”

On the streets of the West Bank and Gaza, people directed their anger at Israel and at the West. Palestinian Arabs closed shops across the West Bank and Gaza to protest the raid, amid an outburst of anti-Western sentiment. In Gaza, schools opened, but most students left early to protest. Nablus residents observed a general strike.

The raid triggered unprecedented Palestinian Arab reprisals against foreigners, blaming America and Britain for withdrawing their monitors and charging collusion with Israel.

As the raid unfolded Tuesday, gunmen vandalized Western offices and kidnapped 11 foreigners, including an American university professor. By yesterday afternoon, the last of the hostages was released in Gaza.

Mr. Saadat and four PFLP activists Israel says were involved in the killing of Zeevi in October 2001 were originally arrested by Palestinian police. A makeshift court hastily convened in then- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s West Bank compound sentenced the four to prison terms ranging from one to 18 years, as Israeli forces encircled Arafat’s compound.

Under an internationally brokered deal to end that siege, Mr. Saadat and the others were transferred to Jericho, where American and British inspectors were to supervise their imprisonment. British and American officials said they had complained repeatedly about security conditions at the prison and threatened in a letter last week – a copy of which was sent to Israel – to remove the monitors if things did not improve immediately.

Prime Minister Blair defended the withdrawal of British monitors, saying it came after months of warnings about problems at the jail.

“The idea that this was … uncalled-for or not thought through is simply wrong,” he said in his weekly House of Commons question session yesterday.

Mr. Abbas acknowledged that the foreign monitors had informed him of their intention to leave, but said they did not give a departure date.