GAZA, 22 December 2005 — Members of a Palestinian group briefly kidnapped two foreign teachers in the Gaza Strip yesterday, pulling them from their car as they headed for work to press for the release of their jailed leaders.
The kidnapping of the Dutchman and the Australian was a sign of growing disorder that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is struggling to contain in Gaza after an Israeli pullout and ahead of a January parliamentary election.
Gunmen leapt from cars to snatch the principal and vice principal of the English-speaking private American School in northern Gaza as they drove to work at 6.30 a.m. (0430 GMT) for the last day of term before Christmas holidays.
They were freed after eight hours, following the intervention of a lawmaker from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), whose men claimed the abduction to push for the release of jailed leaders.
The former hostages looked unruffled after their release, shaking hands with joyful students gathered to protest against the kidnapping. The men made no comment.
The PFLP has said the abduction was to pressure the Palestinian Authority to release leaders jailed in Jericho for killing an Israeli Cabinet minister in 2001. “This is our first message, first to the Authority and secondly to the Zionist, American and British enemy. Our message is not directed to the peoples of the two hostages,” said a PFLP statement in Gaza. Workers at the Palestinian-owned school, for children of better-off Gazans, identified the hostages as Dutch principal Hendrik Taatgen and his Australian deputy, Brian Ambrosio.
