- Title: GAZA: Gunmen storm Gaza government office.
- Date: 4th January 2006
- Summary: WIDE OF GROUP OF MILITANTS IN ROOM
- Embargoed: 19th January 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Reuters ID: LVA7NNOWR1DSWLG1QJJZAMCVQ7HT
- Story Text: About 20 Palestinian gunmen stormed into a government office in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday (January 3) to protest the arrest of a suspect in the kidnappings of three Britons, witnesses said.
The incident highlighted the growing violence in Gaza that has threatened a January parliamentary election, in unrest that has mushroomed since Israel quit the coastal strip in September.
Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of the mainstream Fatah movement, forced their way inside the Interior Ministry in the town of Rafah, demanding the release of their colleague, after burning tyres and shooting.
The office was empty of personnel, witnesses said.
"If within half an hour they (Palestinian police) do not release Abu Ibrahim (suspected of kidnapping British citizens), I swear to God we will blow up police stations. If we were not killed by the Israeli, we would be killed by the (Palestinian) authorities," an armed al-Aqsa Brigades leader, linked to the ruling Fatah party, told reporters.
Palestinian sources said officials were in contact with the gunmen by telephone and trying to persuade them to leave.
All were armed with assault rifles and some brandished rocket-propelled grenade launchers which they threatened to shoot, witnesses said.
The Britons, human rights worker Kate Burton, 25 and her parents, Helen and Hugh, were freed last Friday after two days in captivity in a kidnapping claimed by a previously unknown group that called itself the Brigades of the Mujahideen-Jerusalem.
A rash of kidnappings has occurred in Gaza in recent weeks, but the Burtons were the first to be held for more than a few hours. In previous instances, gunmen have seized foreigners briefly to demand jobs and then freed them a short while later. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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