The family of a kidnapped Palestinian security officer said today it had abducted an Australian woman and a Palestinian man in Gaza to pressure police to secure his release.
The incident was the latest example of lawlessness in the Palestinian territories that President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to combat but has been powerless to stop.
Palestinian Steve Sabella, a freelance photographer from Jerusalem, and the Australian, who was not identified by the kidnappers, were taken at gunpoint outside a Gaza beachfront hotel.
A man who identified himself as a relative of Jihad Abed, a Palestinian military intelligence officer abducted yesterday by a militant group, said the family snatched the pair.
"The family wants to seek the release of Jihad Abed after we were disappointed by the failure of the Palestinian Authority to secure his release," said the man, who declined to give his name. "The family gives Palestinian security forces a few hours to get our son released."
He stopped short of any threat to harm the two captives and said they would be freed once Mr Abed was released.
Witnesses said yesterday that gunmen from the Jenin Martyrs Brigades snatched Abed from his car in Gaza and took him to an undisclosed location in a Palestinian refugee camp.
The Jenin Martyrs Brigades, among a plethora of armed factions in Gaza, declined comment after the abduction, and the motive for kidnapping Abed was not immediately known. The group has in the past accused Palestinian military intelligence officials of trying to round up its gunmen, who are ex-activists of Abbas's Fatah movement.
Mr Abed previously served as office director for former military intelligence chief Musa Arafat, who was retired by Mr Abbas several months ago as part of moves to reform disorganised and corruption-plagued security services.
The Jenin Martyrs Brigades last year briefly kidnapped then-Gaza police chief Ghazi al-Jabali, accusing him of graft. He was freed unharmed. Militants also occasionally have targeted foreigners for abduction in recent months but have always released them unharmed, usually within hours.