MILITANTS threatened yesterday to kidnap Western citizens in retaliation for the publication of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Western governments tried to ease tensions before today’s prayers in mosques, which they fear will increase anger.

Diplomats, journalists and aid workers fled Gaza and the West Bank as Palestinian gunmen searched hotels for citizens of countries where newspapers had printed the pictures, declaring that they were legitimate targets.

The EU, the main financial supporter of the Palestinian Authority, stepped up security at its offices in Gaza after gunmen fired into the air outside and scrawled graffiti saying that the offices were “closed until an apology is sent to Muslims”.

A leaflet handed out by the militant groups Islamic Jihad and Fatah warned “infidels” that there are Muslims who “are tough and ready to become a martyr for their religion” and that “European provocations have placed offices and churches under fire”.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the extremist Hezbollah movement, said: “I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our Prophet’s honour.” He said that people would not have dared to insult Islam if the novelist Salman Rushdie had been executed.

However Hamas, the powerful Islamist group that won last week’s Palestinian elections, sought to reassure Westerners. Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas’s senior leader in Gaza, paid a visit to a Church to offer Christians his protection.

He assured Father Manuel Musallam, of the Holy Family Church, that he was prepared to station gunmen from Hamas’s military wing to protect the building, telling him: “You are our brothers.”

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesman, added: “Hamas rejects and condemns the insult to our great Prophet Muhammad. We think demonstrations and rejection are legitimate, but we should not meet abuse with abuse. Hamas rejects any targeting of any institutions, churches or citizens and those who do this do not represent the authentic beliefs of Islam.”

But as tensions increased, France and Denmark issued warnings to their citizens about travelling in Muslim areas, and Denmark and Norway closed their Palestinian offices.

A European Commission spokeswoman said: “Colleagues working in the region are usually there to try to improve the lot of Palestinian people, and those who make the threats should bear that in mind. We oppose all use of violence.”

In Pakistan 400 Muslim students shouted “Death to Denmark” and “Death to France”. They burnt Danish and French flags and an effigy of the Danish Prime Minister. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of Pakistan’s main alliance of Islamic parties, said: “We have called for countrywide protests on Friday.”

Per Stig Moeller, the Danish Foreign Minister, also gave warning of the risk of today’s sermons fuelling anger. “Now countries such as France, Germany and Austria have published the drawings. This could stir things up further,” he said.

Leaders of Islamic nations stepped up their criticism of the cartoons. A spokesman for President Mubarak of Egypt said: “The President warned of the near and long-term repercussions of the campaign of insults against the noble Prophet. Irresponsible management of these repercussions will provide further excuses to the forces of radicalism and terrorism.”

Egypt’s state owned Al-Gomhurriya newspaper said: “The international community should understand that any attack against our Prophet will not go unpunished.”

President Karzai of Afghanistan said: “Any insult to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) is an insult to more than one billion Muslims and an act like this must never be allowed to be repeated.”

As an economic boycott of Danish produce spread around the Middle East, Arla Foods, Scandinavia’s largest exporter of dairy products to the region, announced that it was laying off 125 employees.

Carsten Juste, the editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, who originally published the 12 cartoons, said yesterday that he would not have printed them had he known that “the lives of Danish soldiers and civilians would be threatened”. He added: “No responsible editor-in-chief would.”

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