Gaza: Politician shot, aid workers abducted, then released
Italian aid workers kidnapped by gunmen in southern Gaza, then released; in response Red Cross suspends operations in Strip. several hours later, gunmen shoot and injure former Fatah cabinet minister
Two Italians working for the Red Cross were freed in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday about eight hours after they were abducted by gunmen, a Palestinian security source said.
Palestinian security agents secured the release of the two after establishing contact with the kidnappers who had taken them from a street near the Gaza town of Khan Younis, the source said.
Gunmen abducted two Italians working for the International Committee of the Red Cross in southern Gaza on Tuesday, the latest in a spate of kidnappings of foreigners in the Palestinian coastal strip.
The Red Cross later announced it had suspended its field operations in Gaza as a result of the kidnappings.
Police said the aid workers were in a car on their way to the town of Khan Younis when they were intercepted by gunmen.
"They were taken out of their vehicle and put into another car which then sped away," Said one police officer at the scene.
An ICRC spokesman in Jerusalem, Simon Schorno, identified the abducted men as Claudio Moroni and Gianmarco Onorato. He said they were representatives of the Italian Red Cross. Moroni was a dual national with a Canadian passport as well, an ICRC spokesman in Gaza, Iyad Nasir, said.
There was no claim of responsibility for the abductions, which underscore the lawlessness in Gaza, where factional fighting and Western sanctions imposed on the Hamas government have worsened poverty among the strip's 1.4 million people.
Nasir said the ICRC had "suspended its field operations" in Gaza after the kidnappings and its workers would remain in their offices and venture out only to provide aid in life-threatening situations.
Former Fatah minister attacked
Hours after the kidnappings, a gunman shot and wounded a former Palestinian cabinet minister from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, who had served under the late Yasser Arafat, Fatah sources said.
An outspoken critic of the ruling Hamas government, Abdel Aziz Shahin, in his 60's, was wounded in the thigh in the shooting as he left the office of a pro-Fatah radio station in Gaza City, the sources said.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility or charges as to who was involved in the shooting. Gaza had seen a series of incidents of internal Palestinian violence in recent months.
Most foreigners kidnapped in Gaza this year have been freed unharmed within hours. However, two journalists working for the US Fox News channel who were abducted in August were held by militants for two weeks before being released.
