MIDDLE EAST: Two journalists from the American Fox News channel were freed unharmed in Gaza yesterday after being forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam at the end of a two-week kidnapping ordeal.
Hours before their release, the two men appeared in a video, dressed in Arab robes. They announced their conversion and criticised American and British foreign policy in the Middle East.
Steve Centanni (60), an American correspondent, and his freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig (36), a New Zealander, were later released and dropped off by Palestinian security forces at a hotel in Gaza City. They were later driven to Israel.
"I am so happy to be out," said Centanni. "There were times I thought I was dead, but I'm okay, thank God."
In a separate development yesterday, an Egyptian newspaper reported that a deal was near to free the two Israeli soldiers whose capture by Hizbullah on July 12th triggered the month-long war in Lebanon.
Al-Ahram newspaper cited Egyptian government sources who said German diplomats had helped negotiate a deal which would see the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, freed in two or three weeks.
A number of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel would be freed in return a day or two later, it said. A second deal to free Corp Gilad Shalit, another Israeli soldier captured near Gaza in June, was also imminent, the paper said.
Hassan Nasrullah, the Hizbullah leader, said yesterday that negotiations were under way to free the pair captured in July. "Contacts recently began for negotiations," he said.
Italy was also likely to be involved in the negotiations, apparently at the request of Hizbullah's backer, Iran.
The Israeli government would not confirm the reports, although officials have said privately in recent days that they would be ready to negotiate the return of the two soldiers held in Lebanon.
In Gaza, Palestinian officials said they now believed that the kidnappers of the Fox News journalists were militants from one of the many local armed factions and were not linked to al-Qaeda's terror network.
Last week, the kidnappers said they were from a previously unknown group called the Holy Jihad Brigades.
Although foreigners have been seized in recent months in Gaza, this hostage-taking incident lasted much longer than any before and appeared more harrowing.
Centanni described how the pair had been dragged from their car at gunpoint in Gaza City two weeks ago. They were blindfolded and had their hands tightly bound behind their backs.
"That was just the beginning of our torment," he said.
They were driven to what he thought was a warehouse or garage and made to lie face down on the floor in the darkness. They were questioned about previous reporting assignments.
"Then they forced us to convert to Islam at gunpoint," said Centanni.