Red Cross aid workers released

2006-11-22 11:45

Gaza City - The Red Cross suspended its activities in the Gaza Strip after Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two of its workers, the local office said, a major blow to aid efforts after a series of abductions of foreigners in recent months.

The two Italian aid workers were released early on Wednesday, Palestinian security officials said.

Iyad Nasr, a spokesperson for the Red Cross's Gaza office, said the organisation had ceased all field operations and would intervene only "in matters of life and death".

Workers have been ordered to stay in their offices because of fears for their safety, he said.

Over the past two years, there has been a rash of kidnappings of foreign aid workers and journalists in Gaza, usually by groups or families pressing the government for money or job guarantees. In most cases, the hostages were quickly released. None have been seriously harmed.

The Red Cross facilitates movement of ambulances and emergency supplies in the violence-wracked territory.

Violence

Palestinians on Wednesday said a man was killed by Israeli tank fire in the northern Gaza Strip. They said the attack happened as a group of Hamas security personnel gathered outside a building there, although it was not immediately clear if the dead man was one of them.

The army said it fired at a group of armed men who were laying landmines on a road.

Gaza was the focus of other violent incidents on Tuesday evening. An Israeli wounded earlier in the day by a rocket fire from northern Gaza died, and gunmen shot and wounded a former Fatah cabinet minister, an attack apparently linked to internal Palestinian political rivalry.

- AP