Kidnapped Fox journalists released unharmed
Two Fox journalists kidnapped by militants two weeks ago in Gaza were freed and appeared to be in good health.
Hours before their release, a video on the Palestinian news service Ramattan TV showed the two reading statements proclaiming they had converted to Islam. But the two later explained they had done so at gunpoint, and that the conversion was not real.
Centanni and Wiig were snatched off the streets on August 14 by masked gunmen and held by a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades.
“We were driving down a narrow side street in Gaza City and there was a car stopped in front of us,” Centanni said. “Before we realized what kind of car had stopped, four masked gunmen came over.”
Centanni said he and Wiig were shoved into a small Toyota and their captors draped black hoods over their heads before speeding away.
“That was the beginning of our torment that night,” he said.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Interior, Khaled Abu Hilal, said the journalists’ release “is the payoff of the continuous efforts from different Palestinian sides to secure their safety and release.”
Hilal did not provide details on the process of their release but did confirm the Palestinian Authority will secure their exit from Gaza.
Palestinian Interior Minister Saed Sayyam said at a news conference, “There is a promise that similar actions would not be happening again,” although he did not say who made that promise.
The journalists thanked British and U.S. officials and praised Palestinian officials for helping secure their release.
“I just hope this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover this story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful, kind-hearted loving people who the world needs to know more about,” said Centanni at a brief news conference.
Wiig echoed those remarks. “That would be a great tragedy for the people of Palestine and especially for the people of Gaza. Your story doesn’t get very well told because it is difficult to work here and anything that — any little discouragement — an incident like this could give a network an excuse not to be here and that would be a great tragedy for the people of Gaza,” he said.
The initial condition for release was that all Muslim prisoners “in the jails of America” be released.
The United States refused to offer concessions to their demands, keeping with its long-standing policy.
Pressure had mounted from Palestinians for the kidnappers to release the journalists.
A Palestinian prisoners’ rights group said that even Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails asked the kidnappers to release the journalists immediately and unconditionally.
CNN
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