Kidnapped 'CNN' producer released

Kidnapped 'CNN' producer released

Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press/Gaza City

An Israeli Arab who works as a producer for the TV network CNN was released on Tuesday, a day after he was kidnapped at gunpoint, relatives and Palestinian police said.

Riad Ali was removed from a CNN van on a busy Gaza street Monday, when Palestinians stopped the broadcast vehicle and asked for him by name. They removed him from the van and took him away to an undisclosed location.

Ali's father told a group of reporters outside his home that his son had been released.

"Thank you for standing next to me. Thank you for what you have done," the father said.

CNN confirmed the release, saying Ali had been turned over to Palestinian police. A police official also said Ali was free.

The motive for the kidnapping was not immediately clear. Militant Palestinian groups denied involvement.

Earlier, a senior Palestinian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials had reached an agreement with the kidnappers and the journalist. He did not elaborate.

It was not clear whether the kidnapping signaled a new practice by Palestinian militants -- perhaps an attempt to copy Iraqi insurgents who have snatched dozens of foreigners -- or whether Ali was taken for personal reasons.

The army said the man was climbing a fence surrounding an army position and when he refused several calls to halt, troops opened fire.

In four years of fighting with Israel, militant groups have carried out scores of suicide bombings and shooting attacks, but have refrained from kidnapping non-Palestinians as a way of extracting concessions from Israel.

Ali was singled out by the kidnappers, and there was speculation someone had a personal grudge against him.

Militants might also have opened a new front by targeting an Israeli journalist following the assassination of a Hamas leader in Syria on Sunday. Israeli security sources have acknowledged involvement in the killing, and Hamas, weakened after a string of killings of its leaders, has vowed revenge.

During four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, foreign and Israeli Arab journalists have felt relatively safe in Gaza. In one of the few incidents of violence against foreign journalists, Palestinians attempted to kidnap a New York Times correspondent last May, but the reporter escaped.

However, Gaza has grown increasingly chaotic in recent months amid growing discontent with the weakened Palestinian Authority and ahead of a planned Israeli withdrawal from the area next year.

Palestinian gunmen in Gaza have seized several foreign aid workers and local officials in recent months, but released them after a few hours, often under pressure from their leaders. Tensions have escalated since Sunday's car bombing in Damascus that killed a Hamas leader.

The Israeli military closed the main crossing from Israel into Gaza, used by Palestinians, diplomats and reporters, "following security assessments and security alerts." The military would not say if the decision was tied to the kidnapping.

In the West Bank violence, meanwhile, troops shot dead a Palestinian in the Jenin refugee camp, local hospital staff said. Camp residents said the man, Baleh Bilalu, 46, had a history of mental illness and was wandering in the dark in a section of the camp under military curfew when soldiers shot him.