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Gaza: The release of kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston is a top priority for the Hamas rulers of Gaza, deposed Palestinian Prime Minister Esmail Haniya said yesterday, as the British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent spent his 100th day in captivity.
Since seizing power in Gaza last week, Hamas has pledged to win the release of Johnston, in an apparent bid to gain favor with the international community and assert its authority in the chaotic coastal strip.
"It is clear that we are approaching the need for being decisive," Haniya told reporters. "We hope to finish as soon as possible."
Colleagues of the 45-year-old British journalist are holding vigils around the world .
"We are following the case of the journalist Alan Johnston very intensively and a big effort is being made to ensure he is released. We are trying to use all possible ways to end this matter," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
The movement said it wanted to find a solution that would not endanger Johnston's life, saying it would be wrong to rush in, following a death threat from his captors.
Right mechanism
"Hamas wants to find the right mechanism to release him in order to protect his life. It is very important for us to keep him safe. To rush would be wrong," said another spokesman Fawzi Barhum.
Masked gunmen yesterday shot dead a member of the Dogmush clan in broad daylight in Gaza City, medical sources said. Members of the Dogmush family in 2006 formed the Army of Islam, the radical group which claims to be holding Johnston.
The Foreign Press Association in Israel urged members in Gaza to "exercise extreme caution particularly in light of information that a member of one of the Gaza clans widely suspected of involvement in kidnapping foreigners was killed today sparking fears of reprisals that might target foreigners."
There has been no word on the journalist's condition since the radical fringe group claiming his abduction released an undated video on June 1, showing a pale Johnston.
The BBC was to hold vigils around the world calling for the release of the award-winning reporter, who was the only Western journalist left permanently in Gaza when he was seized on March 12.
Profile
- Sole western reporter in Gaza when kidnapped
- Alan Johnston, the BBC Gaza correspondent spending his 100th day in captivity yesterday, was the only Western reporter living in the Palestinian territory when he was abducted.
- He was forced from his car at gunpoint in Gaza City on March 12 and has become the Westerner held for the longest ever time in the Gaza Strip.
- Alan Graham Johnston, who is single with no children, was born in Lindi, Tanzania, on May 17, 1962.
- He was educated at Dollar Academy in in central Scotland, and earned a master of arts postgraduate degree in English and Politics from the nearby University of Dundee and a diploma in Journalism Studies from the University of Wales in Cardiff.
- He joined the BBC in January 1991 as a sub-editor before becoming the corporation's Tashkent correspondent from 1993 to 1995. He also served as the BBC's Kabul correspondent from 1997 to 1998.
- He returned to BBC World Service to be a programme editor of The World Today and then a general reporter in the BBC World Service newsroom.
- His three-year posting to Gaza began in April 2004, where he worked for BBC radio and television.
- His self-declared captors, the Army of Islam, threatened to execute Johnston if their demands are not met. They want the release of Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-born cleric once labelled Al Qaida's spiritual leader in Europe, who is being held in Britain.
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