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sick and tired of pro-israeli media?
well here's a thought, how bout you stop kidnapping journalists?
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GAZA (Reuters) -- Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held hostage in Gaza since March 12, was handed over by his Islamist captors to ruling Hamas officials on Wednesday, a Palestinian source close to negotiations for his release said.
The source and another Palestinian involved in the talks both said they saw the 45-year-old Briton being taken into the care of officials from the Hamas movement, which seized full control of Gaza three weeks ago.
"He is sitting with his colleagues from the BBC office in Gaza," one of the witnesses said. "He is talking to them and he looks fine and well."
Johnston, the only Western correspondent working full-time in the troubled coastal enclave, was the longest held of a number of foreign correspondents who have been abducted in Gaza in the past several years.
His captors called themselves the Army of Islam, an al Qaeda-inspired group with links to one of Gaza's powerful clans.
They issued Web videos showing Johnston and seeking the release of Islamists held prisoner by Britain and other states.
Most recently, after Hamas officials threatened to free him by force from the clan's stronghold, Johnston was shown wearing a suicide belt with the warning he would die if that happened.
Hamas forces earlier Tuesday surrounded an area in Gaza City inhabited by the clan where Army of Islam has the bulk of its supporters and where Hamas believed Johnston was being held.
Hamas' police called the Executive Force said it would "continue to besiege the area until British journalist Alan Johnston, who was abducted a few months ago, is freed."
Abu Mujahed of the Popular Resistance Committees told Reuters: "Efforts are under way to conclude all the remaining issues." |
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast...reut/index.html
nice to see hamas might have finally concluded that too.
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