Kidnapping signals rising threat in Gaza

Busy with the war in northern Israel and Lebanon, most foreign reporters in the region had all but neglected volatile Gaza.

But two journalists from the FOX News Channel decided it was too important to ignore. Last Monday, US correspondent Steve Centanni and his cameraman, New Zealander Olaf Wiig, were working on a story when they were seized from their vehicle somewhere near the Palestinian security services headquarters in Gaza City.

They have not been heard from in more than a week. And in an unprecedented turn for journalists covering Palestinian affairs in Gaza, no group has stepped forward to claim responsibility or to set conditions for release. Officials at the interior ministry of the Palestinian Authority (PA), one of the offices leading the investigation, say that their leads in the case have nearly run dry.

"Unfortunately, the leads we got in the first few hours led to nothing," says Khaled Abu Hilal, the spokesman of the PA's interior ministry. "We received information about the type of car, and we moved on this information but it led to nothing."

The two journalists and a security assistant were in one of the safer places in Gaza – near the Palestinian security services – when two trucks of masked gunmen pulled up and blocked their passage. Mr. Centanni and Mr. Wiig were dragged from the car, a sports utility vehicle marked "TV" – a common feature of journalists' vehicles here – and driven away.

"Since the kidnapping, all the security apparatuses have mobilized with all of their power and have even established checkpoints on the roads," in an effort to apprehend the men, Mr. Abu Hilal says. "A wide search operation has started, but regrettably, without any result."

Interior ministry officials say the fact that the two men were taken by operatives who have managed to keep their identity and location secret, a rare phenomenon in intimate and dense Gaza, indicates a higher level of expertise than in previous kidnappings.

Over the past few years there have been several incidents of kidnapping foreign journalists, but in most cases, the reporters were released unharmed within 24 to 48 hours. A year ago Tuesday, French-Algerian journalist Mohammed Ouathi, a sound man for French TV, was freed after nine days in captivity in Gaza. Reporters for US media outlets such as Newsweek, CNN, and the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain have been the target of kidnappings in Gaza over the past few years. But in most of the cases, the kidnappers' goals were deemed to be primarily of internal interest: motivated by rivalries between different Palestinian factions or even demands for pay and jobs.

A spokesman for the PRC, or Popular Resistance Committee, an interfactional group that was rumored to be involved in the kidnapping of Centanni and Wiig, denied any involvement.

"We have confirmed many times that foreign journalists are not to be attacked. On the contrary, we should protect them, because they work very hard to reveal the real image of the Palestinians, and what happened really damaged the image of the Palestinians," says Abu Mujahid, a spokesman from the group, using an apparent nickname, which means father of one who wages holy war, or engages in religious struggle. "We have even offered security officials all our means and abilities to finding out who is behind this and to release them."

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