GAZA: Two Italian aid workers who were kidnapped and released in Gaza meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Two Italian aid workers Claudio Moroni and Gianmarco Onorato, employees of the Red Cross in Gaza met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday (November 22), after they were released by Fatah gunmen who kidnapped them in southern Gaza. Gunmen from Abbas' Fatah movement had abducted the two workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the town of Khan Younis on Tuesday (November 21) and freed them eight hours later in the latest of a spate of kidnappings of foreigners in the Palestinian territory. The abductors, who demanded an inquiry into Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death two years ago, were later persuaded their actions were harming the Palestinian cause, a source involved in talks to free the hostages said. Moroni and Onorato had been freed unharmed after contact was made with kidnappers. The abductions had underscored the lawlessness in Gaza, where factional fighting and sanctions imposed on the Hamas government have worsened the poverty for 1.4 million people. A police officer said the men had been taken out of their vehicle near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis and put into another car which then sped away. An ICRC spokesman in Jerusalem, Simon Schorno, confirmed soon after that both abducted men were representatives of the Italian Red Cross. The Red Cross has since "suspended its field operations" in Gaza and announced its workers would venture out of their offices only to provide aid in life-threatening situations.

ITN Source | November 23, 2006

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