Photographer, Palestinian gunmen abducted in Gaza
Source: Reuters
(Adds release of kidnapped gunmen, paragraph 5) By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen kidnapped a Peruvian photographer working for Agence France-Presse in Gaza on Monday, while militants were seized and freed in separate abductions that sparked new violence between rival factions. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction of the photographer, named by the French news agency and Palestinian security sources as Jaime Razuri. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's office said in a statement that Abbas condemned the kidnapping and had called for all Palestinian security forces to search for and free the man. In northern Gaza, tensions between rival Palestinian factions flared when Fatah militants kidnapped 10 gunmen from the governing Hamas group, while Hamas militants abducted seven Fatah gunmen, sources from both factions said. All the kidnapped gunmen were later freed after both sides agreed to swap captives, sources from the groups said. The abductions had sparked gunbattles between the factions, which wounded three Palestinians caught in the crossfire, including a boy, Palestinian rescue workers said. The identities of the other two were unknown. Hamas and Fatah declared a truce in December to end weeks of deadly violence, which intensified after Abbas, who is also the head of Fatah, called for early elections. Hamas condemned the move as a coup to oust it from office less than a year after the militant group won a parliamentary ballot. Witnesses said the AFP photographer was seized while entering the agency's office in Gaza City. Militants in Gaza have abducted foreigners in the past, usually to try to put pressure on the Palestinian government to give them jobs. In two separate incidents in October, gunmen in Gaza seized and held a Spanish aid worker and a photographer working for the Associated Press news agency for several hours. In August, Gaza militants kept two journalists from the U.S. Fox News channel captive for two weeks.
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