Palestinian gunmen took up positions outside the EU Commission's office Thursday morning and said they were closing it in protest over a newspaper cartoon featuring the prophet Muhammad that has riled the Muslim world. The workers in the offices had already abandoned the building before the gunmen arrived.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, gunmen said they were searching apartments for foreigners from several European countries to try to abduct them.

According to a Channel 2 report, West Bank gunmen gave an 8:00 p.m. (Israel time) deadline for European governments to apologize for the publications. Otherwise, they warned, European doctors and other European nationals would be targeted.

In a phone call to The Associated Press, a member of the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, said members of his group are also asking hotel owners in the city not to host citizens of five European countries, including France and Denmark.

"Any citizens of these countries, who are present in Gaza, will put themselves in danger," a Fatah-affiliated gunman said Thursday, as he stood outside the EU Commission's office in Gaza. He was flanked by two masked men holding up their rifles.

The gunmen also demanded apologies from the governments of France, Denmark and Norway within 48 hours and called on Palestinians to boycott their products after newspapers in these countries printed the caricatures.

A leaflet signed by a Fatah militia and the Islamic Jihad said the EU office and churches in Gaza could come under attack and urged all French citizens to leave Gaza.

On Wednesday night, the Fatah-affiliated Aksa Martyrs' Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine threatened to blow up the Danish and Norwegian consulates in the Palestinian Authority, Army Radio reported.

The drawings first ran in a Danish paper in September and have stirred the Muslim world. The cartoons included an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, and another portraying him holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle.

The newspaper issued an apology to the world's Muslims on Monday. The drawings "were not in violation of Danish law but have undoubtedly offended many Muslims, which we would like to apologize for," the Jyllands-Posten's editor-in-chief Carsten Juste said in a statement posted on the paper's Web site.

However, France Soir and several other European papers reprinted the cartoons on Wednesday, rallying to defend freedom of expression.

The front page of France Soir on Wednesday carried the headline "Yes, We Have the Right to Caricature God" and a cartoon of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian gods floating on a cloud. However, the paper said on Thursday that its managing editor was fired, as debate over the drawings mounted among French Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Juste told The Associated Press on Wednesday night "The dark dictatorships have won."