OMEN
03-15-2006, 12:08 AM
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Chaos ... Palestinian violence was sparked by an Israeli raid
AN Australian teacher kidnapped in Gaza believes he and his colleague were taken by accident a Palestinian group who thought they were Americans.
Science and maths teacher Oles Shcharytsya, said today he believed their kidnapping was a mistake.
"Because they thought that people are Americans and they apologised, it's all right," he said on Sky News.
Australian diplomats are now assisting the pair who were briefly abducted during a kidnapping blitz in Palestinian territories today after Israeli troops raided a West Bank jail hunting a militant. ABC radio named the other Australian as junior teacher Kaye Bennett.
They were abducted when 20 men forced their way into the American International School in Beit Lahiya, principal Hendrik Taatgen said.
"I think, by the time the naval police had met us to get them back, we couldn't prevent the other two, the Australians, they were being taken by the kidnappers, Mr Taatgen told the ABC.
The abduction was reported just before 2am (AEDT) today and Ms Bennett and Mr Shcharytsya were released just two hours after they were snatched.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv arranged for the head of the Australian Representative Office in Ramallah to travel to Gaza.
"The ARO representative has arranged to meet the teachers and assist with their crossing at the Erez border crossing and help them contact family members," he said.
The spokesman said there was no information on whether the pair planned to stay or leave.
He said DFAT travel advisories for the Gaza strip and West Bank contained longstanding recommendations that Australians don't go there and those already there should leave because of the security situation.
At least nine foreigners were kidnapped, with six released a short time later, after Israeli forces stormed the prison in search of a wanted militant.
The facility had been deserted by British monitors shortly before the raid, sparking claims of collusion between authorities.
The Australians had been held by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed offshoot of the Palestinian leadership's mainstream Fatah movement, before being handed over to preventive security, a spokesman for the group told Agence France-Presse.
Mr Taatgen was himself abducted from the same school, along with his Australian deputy principal Brian Ambrosio, in December last year.
They were released eight hours later by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The group had been seeking the release of Palestinian faction leaders who were arrested in the Israeli operation on the Jericho prison today.
Mr Ambrosio still works at the school as its deputy principal, according to the school's website. The abductions followed hot on the heels of warnings from militants for all British and US nationals to quit the West Bank and Gaza Strip "immediately".
By nightfall all foreigners still at liberty in Gaza had left the territory, and Palestinian security forces had sealed the border with Egypt.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas cut short a European tour to rush home to take charge of events after appealing for a halt to attacks foreign and EU interests in the Palestinian territories.
But the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine vowed that the siege in which their detained chief Ahmed Saadat surrendered to Israeli troops, would not go unpunished, sparking fears of heightened Middle East violence.
"It will not pass without retaliation," politburo leader Kaid al-Rul told AFP.
All Palestinian factions later held emergency talks at which they called a general protest strike across the territories for Wednesday.
In the other kidnappings, an American teacher, Douglas Johnson, was released after being abducted in the West Bank city of Jenin, militants and the school that employed him said.
Gunmen also freed a Swiss employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross who they had taken from an ICRC office in Gaza and two French women working for the non-governmental agency Medecins du Monde, officials said.
Three other foreigners – a South Korean and two French journalists who the French Foreign Ministry said were working for Elle magazine and the Sipa photo agency – were still being held in the Gaza Strip.
The South Korean, a correspondent for the country's public broadcaster KBS, was kidnapped in Gaza, the foreign ministry in Seoul said.
It was the worst day of foreign abductions in the increasingly chaotic and hostage-prone Gaza Strip since Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the territory last September, following a 38-year occupation.
AAP, AFP and Reuters
Chaos ... Palestinian violence was sparked by an Israeli raid
AN Australian teacher kidnapped in Gaza believes he and his colleague were taken by accident a Palestinian group who thought they were Americans.
Science and maths teacher Oles Shcharytsya, said today he believed their kidnapping was a mistake.
"Because they thought that people are Americans and they apologised, it's all right," he said on Sky News.
Australian diplomats are now assisting the pair who were briefly abducted during a kidnapping blitz in Palestinian territories today after Israeli troops raided a West Bank jail hunting a militant. ABC radio named the other Australian as junior teacher Kaye Bennett.
They were abducted when 20 men forced their way into the American International School in Beit Lahiya, principal Hendrik Taatgen said.
"I think, by the time the naval police had met us to get them back, we couldn't prevent the other two, the Australians, they were being taken by the kidnappers, Mr Taatgen told the ABC.
The abduction was reported just before 2am (AEDT) today and Ms Bennett and Mr Shcharytsya were released just two hours after they were snatched.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv arranged for the head of the Australian Representative Office in Ramallah to travel to Gaza.
"The ARO representative has arranged to meet the teachers and assist with their crossing at the Erez border crossing and help them contact family members," he said.
The spokesman said there was no information on whether the pair planned to stay or leave.
He said DFAT travel advisories for the Gaza strip and West Bank contained longstanding recommendations that Australians don't go there and those already there should leave because of the security situation.
At least nine foreigners were kidnapped, with six released a short time later, after Israeli forces stormed the prison in search of a wanted militant.
The facility had been deserted by British monitors shortly before the raid, sparking claims of collusion between authorities.
The Australians had been held by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed offshoot of the Palestinian leadership's mainstream Fatah movement, before being handed over to preventive security, a spokesman for the group told Agence France-Presse.
Mr Taatgen was himself abducted from the same school, along with his Australian deputy principal Brian Ambrosio, in December last year.
They were released eight hours later by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The group had been seeking the release of Palestinian faction leaders who were arrested in the Israeli operation on the Jericho prison today.
Mr Ambrosio still works at the school as its deputy principal, according to the school's website. The abductions followed hot on the heels of warnings from militants for all British and US nationals to quit the West Bank and Gaza Strip "immediately".
By nightfall all foreigners still at liberty in Gaza had left the territory, and Palestinian security forces had sealed the border with Egypt.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas cut short a European tour to rush home to take charge of events after appealing for a halt to attacks foreign and EU interests in the Palestinian territories.
But the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine vowed that the siege in which their detained chief Ahmed Saadat surrendered to Israeli troops, would not go unpunished, sparking fears of heightened Middle East violence.
"It will not pass without retaliation," politburo leader Kaid al-Rul told AFP.
All Palestinian factions later held emergency talks at which they called a general protest strike across the territories for Wednesday.
In the other kidnappings, an American teacher, Douglas Johnson, was released after being abducted in the West Bank city of Jenin, militants and the school that employed him said.
Gunmen also freed a Swiss employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross who they had taken from an ICRC office in Gaza and two French women working for the non-governmental agency Medecins du Monde, officials said.
Three other foreigners – a South Korean and two French journalists who the French Foreign Ministry said were working for Elle magazine and the Sipa photo agency – were still being held in the Gaza Strip.
The South Korean, a correspondent for the country's public broadcaster KBS, was kidnapped in Gaza, the foreign ministry in Seoul said.
It was the worst day of foreign abductions in the increasingly chaotic and hostage-prone Gaza Strip since Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the territory last September, following a 38-year occupation.
AAP, AFP and Reuters