Gunmen kidnap, then free senior official in Gaza

9/16/2004 10:37:00 PM GMT

Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped a senior official of the security forces and held him for three hours in the center of Gaza city, then released him.

General Mohammed Ahmed al-Batrawi was released unharmed after intervention by Palestinian security services and the Fatah movement, security sources said. Fatah didn’t give details of his release, nor did it identify the kidnappers.

Earlier today, gunmen surrounded the car of Brigadier-General Mohammad Al-Batrawi, the head of the financial surveillance department of the Palestinian security forces, and forced him to drive off with them, leaving his driver and body guard at the scene.

The unit that Batrawi worked for is considered loyal to President Yasser Arafat.

No party claimed the kidnapping of Batrawi, which local sources assume it might be linked to a dispute over jobs, but Fatah movement denounced it right before the general's release was announced.

"This act was perpetrated by irresponsible elements, mercenaries acting on behalf of ill-intentioned people," stated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Palestine’s unprecedented political turmoil started off with the brief kidnapping of Gaza's police chief and several foreigners in July, which made Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei submit his resignation, before later retracting it.

However, none of the groups has ever said it wants to oust Arafat himself, widely seen as symbolizing the Palestinian struggle for statehood.

The unrest is largely seen as pitting Arafat's old guard, seen by many Palestinians as out of touch, against younger leaders who called for anti-corruption reforms and changes in the security forces.

Thousands mourn Palestinians killed by Israeli troops

At least 8,000 Palestinians packed the centre of the West Bank city of Nablus as they paid their last respects to five Palestinian fighters and a schoolgirl who got killed in an Israeli raid on the city.

The six Palestinians were all killed during a major Israeli assault in Nablus on one of the bloodiest days in the West Bank of the four-year uprising, Intifada.

11-year-old Maram Al-Nahleh was killed by the Israeli gunfire when she went to look at the ambulances taking away the bodies, after the Israeli raid on the town.

The crowds chanted calls for revenge attacks, announcing their support for the Al-Aqsa Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement.

The Israeli occupation forces, which has imposed a general lockdown on the Palestinian territories for the Jewish new year holiday, blocked access into or out of Jenin on Thursday.