GAZA: Spanish aid worker freed in Gaza

A Spanish aid worker was freed unharmed by his captors in Gaza on Monday (October 30), hours after he was taken from his car near the southern town of Khana Younis, a Palestinian internal security official said. The kidnapped man, Roberto Villa Sexto, 32, of the Spanish charity Cooperative Assembly for Peace, had been working in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank for two years, the organisation's spokeswoman said in Madrid. Villa was rushed back to Gaza City's Beach Hotel where armed security men escorted him into the building through a scrum of news photographers. He did not speak to waiting reporters. A Spanish diplomatic official at the scene said he was very tired and would talk on another occasion. The identity of the kidnappers was not made public. It was the latest in a series of such abductions in the territory. Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said the abductors freed Villa when they realised the net was closing in on them and they heard that Interior Minister Saeed Seyam had ordered they be dealt with harshly. Earlier, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, looking angry, said the abductors were harming the cause of all Palestinians through their actions. Last week, Palestinian gunmen kidnapped a Spanish photographer working for the Associated Press in Gaza, keeping him captive for more than 12 hours before pressure from Palestinian officials secured his release. Previous kidnappings of foreigners have usually ended after a few hours or days with the release of the prisoners unharmed.

ITN Source | October 31, 2006

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