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.