MIDDLE EAST: The Israeli army has massed forces in the northern Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks on Israeli towns earlier yesterday.
The move came as Palestinian gunmen freed unharmed an Israeli-Arab CNN producer a day after kidnapping him. Palestinian security sources said dozens of tanks and armoured personnel carriers had been spotted taking up positions outside Beit Hanoun town and close to a Jewish settlement. The troop movements came after Palestinian militants had fired repeated barrages of home-made rockets into southern Israel.
The day of violence came as the Prime Minister, Mr Ahmed Qurie, marked the anniversary of a Palestinian uprising yesterday by urging his own people and Israel to rethink tactics which have brought four years of bloodshed.
Mr Qurie called on Palestinians to reflect on past mistakes as well as successes but proposed no specific changes and did not repeat previous criticism of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel.
Meanwhile, CNN producer Riad Ali said his captors told him they were members of the al- Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group in Palestinian President President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Spokesmen for the Brigades have denied involvement.
"They questioned me about my background as a member of the Druse [Israel's minority\] community and after they saw I had nothing to do with claims or concerns they had, they released me," he told reporters.
Ali, who was seized while on assignment in Gaza with a CNN international correspondent, was quoted as saying the abductors had determined he had no links with Druse units in Israel's army and border police. He was freed shortly after Palestinian officials said security forces had tracked down the kidnappers.