GAZA: FAMILY OF KIDNAPPED PALESTINIAN SECURITY OFFICER SAYS IT HAD ABDUCTED AN AUSTRALIAN WOMAN AND PALESTINIAN MAN

Record ID: 230482

  • Title: GAZA: FAMILY OF KIDNAPPED PALESTINIAN SECURITY OFFICER SAYS IT HAD ABDUCTED AN AUSTRALIAN WOMAN AND PALESTINIAN MAN
  • Date: 30th July 2005
  • Summary: (BN11)GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (JULY 29, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SLV BURNING TIER NEAR PALESTINIAN SECURITY CARS PARKING OUTSIDE HOUSE WHERE FAMILY OF A KIDNAPPED SECURITY OFFICER ANNOUNCED IT HAD ABDUCTED AN AUSTRALIAN CITIZEN AND A PALESTINIAN PHOTOGRAPHER; SLV SECURITY OUTSIDE HOUSE; SLV EXTERIOR OF HOUSE (5 SHOTS) 0.28 2. MV WOMEN RELATIVES OF PALESTINIAN OFFICER KIDNAPPED BY GUNMEN (ACCORDING TO WITNESSES) INSIDE HOUSE 0.38 3. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOTHER OF KIDNAPPED PALESTINIAN OFFICER SAYING: "We didn't have any other choice, we had to do it (kidnap an Australian woman and a Palestinian man). We did this in order to show the Palestinian Authority, which is supporting Mahmoud Nassabat (who the woman claim kidnapped her son), that the foreigners we kidnaped are not more important than our son. This is a massage to the Palestinian Authority to begin looking for our son. We are taking care of the foreigners and they will return to their homes safely. I want to tell their families that they are safe, and we hope our son will also return safe." 1.12 4. MV FAMILY MEMBERS (2 SHOTS) 1.26 5. CLOSE OF GUN HELD BY RELATIVE OF KIDNAPPED PALESTINIAN OFFICER 1.31 6. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MASKED RELATIVE OF KIDNAPPED PALESTINIAN OFFICER SAYING: "First we are asking (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also called) Abu Mazen to be fair and to protect the law. Second, we ask him to find the place where our son is being held and to release him and bring him back to us. Then we will release the foreigners." 1.53 7. MV RELATIVE STANDING; SLV SECURITY OUTSIDE HOUSE; SLV SECURITY CARS DRIVING AWAY (VARIOUS) 2.21 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th August 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GAZA CITY, GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA5EVZ81ZPA7JE9262YYKVRN2M3
  • Story Text: Family of kidnapped Palestinian security officer
    says it had abducted an Australian woman and Palestinian
    man to pressure police for the release of their son.



    The family of a kidnapped Palestinian security
    officer said on Friday (July 29, 2005) it had abducted an
    Australian woman and a Palestinian man in Gaza to pressure
    the police forces to secure their son's release.

    The incident was the latest example of lawlessness in
    the Palestinian territories that President Mahmoud Abbas
    has vowed to combat but has been powerless to stop.

    The mother of Jihad Abed, a Palestinian military
    intelligence officer abducted on Thursday (July 28) by a
    militant group, told Reuters the family snatched the pair
    as an act of despair designated to force the Palestinian
    Authority to save their son.

    "We didn't have any other choice, we had to do it
    (kidnap an Australian woman and a Palestinian man). We did
    this in order to show the Palestinian Authority, which is
    supporting Mahmoud Nassabat (who the woman claim kidnapped
    her son), that the foreigners we kidnaped are not more
    important than our son. This is a massage to the
    Palestinian Authority to begin looking for our son. We are
    taking care of the foreigners and they will return to their
    homes safely. I want to tell their families that they are
    safe, and we hope our son will also return safe," she said
    at her house in Gaza City.

    A Palestinian freelance photographer from Jerusalem,
    Steve Sabella, and an Australian citizen, who was not
    immediately identified by the kidnappers, were taken at
    gunpoint outside a Gaza beach front hotel, police said.

    Witnesses said on Thursday that gunmen from the Jenin
    Martyrs Brigades snatched Abed from his car in Gaza and
    took him to an undisclosed location in a Palestinian
    refugee camp.

    A masked gunman who identified himself as a relative of
    the kidnapped officer called on the Palestinian Authority
    to act to release Abed.

    "First we are asking (Palestinian President Mahmoud
    Abbas, also called) Abu Mazen to be fair and to protect the
    law. Second, we ask him to find the place where our son is
    being held and to release him and bring him back to us.

    Then we will release the foreigners," the masked gunman
    said in Gaza City.

    Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef ordered all
    security officers to secure the pair's release and sent
    policeman to negotiate with the kidnappers.

    The Jenin Martyrs Brigades, among a plethora of armed
    factions in Gaza, declined comment after Thursday's
    abduction, and the motive for kidnapping Abed was not
    immediately known.

    The group has in the past accused Palestinian military
    intelligence officials of trying to round up its gunmen,
    who are ex-activists of Abbas's Fatah movement.

    Abed previously served as office director for former
    military intelligence chief Musa Arafat, who was retired by
    Abbas several months ago as part of moves to reform
    disorganised and corruption-plagued security services.

    The Jenin Martyrs Brigades last year briefly kidnapped
    then-Gaza police chief Ghazi al-Jabali, accusing him of
    graft. He was freed unharmed.

    Militants also occasionally have targeted foreigners
    for abduction in recent months but have always released
    them unharmed, usually within hours.


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