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| By Associated Press January 2, 2007 |
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Violence erupted in the Gaza Strip again, with warring Palestinian factions firing on each other and kidnapping rivals, and gunmen abducting a foreign news photographer.
The clashes in the Jebaliya refugee camp near Gaza City on Monday broke a weeklong pause in the violent confrontation between the Islamic Hamas, which controls the government, and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah. In the past few weeks, 17 people have been killed in the internal fighting, leading to fears of civil war.
At least two people were wounded in the gunfire on Monday, security officials said, and media reports said 18 Hamas gunmen and four from Fatah were kidnapped. Seven of the Hamas militants were later freed. In the past, kidnapped militants have usually been released unharmed.
The armed confrontations escalated as Fatah-Hamas talks on a national unity government broke down several weeks ago. Frustrated by lack of progress, Abbas threatened to call an early election, but Hamas rejected that as an attempted coup and said it would boycott.
The renewed violence came despite a four-day Muslim holiday, "Feast of the Sacrifice," when Palestinians usually concentrate on family visits instead of internal politics.
Before sundown Monday, gunmen abducted a photographer from the French news agency, AFP, from downtown Gaza City.
AFP identified the photographer as Jaime Razuri, 50, from Peru. An AFP reporter said the photographer was returning from an assignment in Gaza and was abducted at gunpoint as he got out of his car with his driver.
Palestinian security officials said the kidnapping happened in central Gaza City, in the area where many foreign news agencies have offices. They said the victim was standing at an intersection when about five masked men approached him, pushed him in a car and sped away.
The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details. There was no public claim of responsibility for the kidnapping.
Abbas condemned the kidnapping, according to a statement on the Palestinian WAFA news agency.
The AFP reporter said the photographer spent most of his career covering Latin America.
The Tel Aviv-based Foreign Press Association, representing foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian areas, also condemned the abduction. "We utterly condemn the continued harassment of journalists in this way. We must be allowed to work freely and without fear of kidnapping in Gaza," the FPA said in a statement.
This was just the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreigners in Gaza in recent months. Most have been carried out by disgruntled workers seeking promises of payment of long overdue salaries or splinter militant groups. In most cases, the victims have been released unharmed within hours. An exception was the abduction of two Fox News employees over the summer _ they were held for two weeks.
Most of the kidnapped foreigners have been journalists, but aid workers have also been targets.
Also Monday, Israeli officials denied claims that they were close to a deal that would secure the release of a captured soldier held for more than six months by Palestinian militants, citing excessive demands by the Islamic Hamas.
Expectations have been building in the media that an announcement could be made at an Israel-Egypt summit on Thursday, but Israeli officials said no agreement was near.
Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin would say only that the prisoner swap "will arise as a subject" at the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Arab media outlets have been reporting for days that a deal to free the captured Israeli soldier is imminent, and Palestinian officials have disclosed specific details, saying Israel would carry out a scaled release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for the soldier. |
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