Palestinian Gunmen Hold Five French Citizens Hostage

[Seismic Anamoly]

"Round and Round and Round We Go,

Where She Stops....."



She's never going to stop.



Sad.



Kiss and hug your children...and keep them close.

[RonOnGuitar]

Seems that some or all of the hostages may have been released -



GAZA, July 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Four French citizens kidnapped in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis were released Friday night after being held by militants for several hours, Palestinian security sources said.



They said that the four French were seen coming out of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society building where they had been locked up.



The kidnapers belonged to the Ahmed Abu el-Rish Brigades, one of the armed wings of the Fatah movement in the southern Gaza Strip,they said.



A top Palestinian security official, refusing to be identified,told reporters that there had been no negotiations with the captorsabout the release.



"It is over, the French guys are free, and the kidnappers have escaped from the building," said the official.The latest abduction has been the third of such taking place in the Gaza Strip in the past 10 hours.



Earlier in the day, Palestinian gunmen abducted Gaza police chief Ghazi al-Jabali and general security official Khaled Abu el-Olla.



Jabali was later released after mediation, but the security official was still being held by the militants who demand the Palestinian National Authority to fight corruption.

[RonOnGuitar]

Five French Citizens Kidnapped in Gaza

Palestinian Gunmen Hold Five French Citizens Hostage in the Gaza Strip



The Associated Press



GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip July 16, 2004 — Palestinian gunmen held five French citizens hostage late Friday in the Gaza Strip, after kidnapping them while they drank coffee in the southern town of Khan Younis.

The hostages two women and three men were being held in a Khan Younis building that houses the offices of the Red Crescent Society.



The building was surrounded by gunmen, holding Palestinian security officials and a crowd of curious onlookers at bay. At one point the gunmen, wearing black ski masks and brandishing automatic weapons, fired several bursts into the air.



Israel Radio reported the five hostages worked for a humanitarian organization. It provided no other details.



In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry said it was unable to immediately confirm that the hostage-taking took place, or provide any other information.



The kidnapping was the third in Gaza in less than 10 hours.



The spate of abductions reflected the growing tussle by militant groups and individuals to strengthen their positions before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fulfills his pledge to withdraw Israeli forces and some 7,500 settlers from Gaza late next year.



They also added to the problems of the Palestinian Authority, which has been undermined by Israeli attacks on the police, while the influence of militant organizations has grown.



Earlier Friday Col. Khaled Abu Aloula, Director of Military Coordination in the southern part of the territory was taken from his car as he returned to Gaza City from Khan Younis.



Palestinian security officials said the kidnappers were Palestinian policemen who had recently been fired from their jobs. The officials said that earlier in the day Aloula had refused their request to help reinstate them.



Also Friday Palestinian militants freed Palestinian Chief of Police Ghazi Jabali after kidnapping him in a highway ambush that deepened the sense of chaos ahead of an announced withdrawal from Gaza by Israel.



Jabali was kidnapped by militants who exchanged gunfire with his bodyguards on the highway five kilometers (3 miles) south of Gaza City. Two bodyguards were wounded.



Witnesses said the militants smashed the car window, pulled Jabali out and sped off in the direction of the Bureij Refugee Camp.



Hours later, Jabali was released and driven in a convoy of Palestinian security officers and officials of Arafat's Fatah party to his office in Gaza City, where he greeted supporters in his uniform and black beret.



A group from the little-known Jenin Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for the abduction. But other militants said the gunmen were members of a militia that Jabali himself had created to back his bid for power after the Israelis leave Gaza.



Several new militant organizations have appeared in Gaza, many of them grouped under the umbrella of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committee. The committee, which has no clear political agenda or ideology, was pressing for more jobs in the police force for its members.



As head of the police forces, Jabali has been identified as Arafat's "enforcer," a tough leader known for cracking down on any dissenters.



But Jabali has made enemies over the years among Palestinians who see him as part of the corruption that riddled the Gaza administration.



Jabali has been the target of several attacks this year. He escaped harm in April when militants planted a bomb at the door of his home. He has clashed with Mohammed Dahlan, the former Palestinian security chief who also is bidding to bolster his position as the Israelis prepare to leave.



Underscoring the growing volatility of the situation in the Palestinian territories, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group affiliated with the ruling Fatah party, has banned the chief U.N. Mideast envoy from entering the territories or meeting Palestinian officials.



The order by the group followed a similar ban from the Palestinian Authority and represented an escalation in Palestinian anger over envoy Terje Roed-Larsen's public criticisms of Yasser Arafat.



The militants' statement could be read as a warning that the Norwegian diplomat could be at risk of being attacked if he defied the ban.



A spokesman for the group said on condition of anonymity that Arafat aides asked the militants to release the statement against Roed-Larsen. But another Al-Aqsa official, in a phone call to the Associated Press, denied Arafat ordered his group to release the statement.



"The statement reflects our views," said Abu Amin, an Aqsa leader in the West Bank town of Jenin. "It has nothing to do with Yasser Arafat."



Roed-Larsen has long been considered close to Arafat and sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.



But earlier this week Roed-Larsen told a U.N. Security Council briefing that the Palestinian leader was blocking vital reforms within the Palestinian Authority and accused him of hindering peace moves.



An order from Arafat's close circle to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades would underscore the strength of the linkage between the two groups. Fatah has distanced itself from Aqsa's violence and claims it had no control over the militants a claim scoffed at by Israel.