GAZA CITY, 9 August 2005 — Palestinian security forces yesterday freed three UN workers who had been taken hostage at gunpoint by masked kidnappers in the southern Gaza Strip just hours earlier, security sources said.
British woman, Christine Blunt, Swiss man Steven Karl and their Palestinian colleague, were released when a team of agents raided a house in Khan Younis where they were being held after being snatched while driving through the same depressed town.
“The UN workers were freed but the kidnappers managed to flee and they are currently being pursued,” a security source told AFP.
The rescue was accompanied by a brief exchange of fire between the kidnappers and security forces, in which one passerby was lightly hurt, witnesses said.
Looking harried, the woman and Swiss man were later seen walking through the street surrounded by a mob of black-clad Palestinian forces holding rifles.
The group, who work for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City, were abducted while driving in a vehicle which was intercepted and hijacked by the gunmen in the center of Khan Younis.
UNRWA officials confirmed the trio had been released. Palestinian security sources said the abduction was linked to the arrest on Sunday of an ally of Farouk Kaddumi, the head of the governing Fatah party which announced last week it was establishing a “popular army”.
The volunteer force, which Fatah hopes will number some 1,500 people, is being set up in a bid to help keep law and order after Israel’s imminent pullout from the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Palestinian foreign minister said yesterday Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip will not mark the end of the territory’s occupation as Palestinians will be unable to exercise full sovereignty.
“The Israelis are leaving the entire Gaza Strip but Israel will maintain control of its air space, territorial waters and, partially, the crossing points,” Nasser Al-Qidwa said in an interview with AFP.
