Masked Palestinian gunmen in Gaza who abducted an Italian journalist yesterday released him several hours later, in an incident that deepened a sense of anarchy in the occupied territory Israel is about to quit.
Lorenzo Cremonesi, a reporter for leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, was pulled from his car in the town of Deir al-Balah by four armed men and driven towards Nusseirat refugee camp, witnesses said.
The gunmen left his interpreter behind. A colleague at the daily's Milan editorial office told Reuters that Cremonesi telephoned the newspaper and said he was being held by members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
Hours later, a Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman said the journalist had been released. Shortly afterward, Cremonesi told a Reuters correspondent in Rome by telephone that he was free and well.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Palestinian security officials said no arrests had been made.
Several foreigners have been abducted at gunpoint in the Gaza Strip over recent months. All were released unharmed.
Palestinian sources said it was possible the latest abduction was linked to the occupation earlier in the day of two government buildings in Deir al-Balah by 200 al-Aqsa brigades gunmen who demanded jobs.