Hamas releases abducted Abu Dhabi TV reporter

The United Arab Emirates' Abu Dhabi television said Palestinian Islamist group Hamas released its Gaza bureau chief on Friday hours after abducting him.

A Hamas official in Gaza denied his group had abducted Abdel-Salam Abu Aksar.

"The Hamas movement abducted the Abu Dhabi television bureau chief in Gaza," An Abu Dhabi television news anchor said. "Abu Dhabi TV regrets the abduction of ... Abdel-Salam Abu Aksar and urges his kidnapers to release him," the anchor said later.

A colleague at the Gaza bureau told Reuters that Abu Aksar had called the office on his mobile telephone to report he had been stopped in his car at a checkpoint set up by a Hamas militia which has been battling Fatah rivals this week.

"He called from a checkpoint and said he was being detained by the Hamas Executive Force," the colleague, who gave his name as Nael, told Reuters.

Sources in  the Gaza Strip said Abu Aksar was a personal friend of Fatah strongman Mohammad Dahlan. Dahlan serves as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' National Security Advisor. 

He said contact with Aksar was then lost, and that witnesses reported seeing him being taken away in an Executive Force jeep.

A spokesman for the group denied involvement. "We have no knowledge of the abduction of the journalist. I have checked and he is not in our custody," said spokesman Islam Shahwan.

In a telephone interview with the channel, its Gaza correspondent Walid Abdul-Rahman said he did not know the reason for the abduction. "But it seems that Hamas wants to escalate the situation (in Gaza)."

Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal visited Abu Dhabi in 2006 and held talks with top officials in the Gulf Arab state, which adopts a moderate policy towards the Palestinians.

The BBC's Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston disappeared on March 12 while driving. Army of Islam, a little-known group, has claimed responsibility for abducting him.

Ali Waked contributed to this report