Peace activist kidnapped in Gaza
2006-01-01 12:31
Gaza City - An Italian peace activist was kidnapped by masked Palestinian gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, security sources and witnesses said.
The victim was abducted from a building in the centre of the city of Khan Yunis and bundled into a car by the gunmen, the sources said.
Police then pursued the vehicle, and security sources said they were confident they knew the identity of the kidnappers.
"Our forces are in pursuit of the car. We have put checkpoints all around the city as well as outside," said interior ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khossa.
The hostage was a member of an Italian peace mission designed to show solidarity with the Palestinians and which had only arrived the night before in Khan Yunis, security sources said.
The kidnapping comes barely a day after a British rights activist and her parents were released after being kidnapped in the town of Rafah on the border into Egypt.
More than a dozen foreigners have been abducted in Gaza in the last few months although all have been released unharmed, usually within a matter of hours.
- AFP