AP photographer released

An Associated Press photographer was released late tonight after a harrowing day in the hands of Palestinian gunmen who abducted him at gunpoint in Gaza - the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreigners in the chaotic area.

Emilio Morenatti, 37, was brought before midnight to the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by Fatah officials. It was not immediately clear who kidnapped him, though officials said he was taken by criminal elements. The government and main Palestinian groups denounced the abduction. No demands were made for his release.

Morenatti looked fatigued after his day-long ordeal. He said he was tired but otherwise unharmed.

Abbas is not in Gaza, but his office is a safe Fatah stronghold in the territory, which is in the throes of a sometimes violent power struggle between Abbas’ Fatah and the militant Islamic Hamas, which is in charge of the Palestinian government. It was not immediately known how he was handed over to Fatah forces.

Morenatti was kidnapped as he headed out of his Gaza City apartment this morning for an AP car, where Majed Hamdan, an AP driver and translator, was waiting. Hamdan said four gunmen grabbed his keys and phone and told him to turn away, pressing a gun to his head and threatening to harm him if he moved.

They snatched Morenatti, shoved him into a white Volkswagen Golf car and drove off, Hamdan said.

Over the past two years, militants have frequently kidnapped foreigners as bargaining chips to get relatives released from Palestinian prisons, secure government jobs or settle personal scores. In most cases, the kidnappings were brief and the hostages released unharmed.

But recently, the kidnappers have changed their tactics. Two Fox News journalists kidnapped in August were held for two weeks, much longer than previous cases. The men also suffered physical and mental abuse in captivity.

An unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades claimed responsibility for the August abduction, and its demand for the release of Muslim prisoners held by the US raised fears that foreign extremists, perhaps al-Qaida, had infiltrated Gaza. But Palestinian security officials later said the name was merely a front for local militants.

Morenatti, from Jerez, Spain, has been based in the Jerusalem bureau of the AP since April 2005, handling periodic assignments in Gaza and the West Bank. He has been in Gaza since Sunday.

Morenatti began working for the AP in April 2004, when he spent a year in Afghanistan covering the conflict there. He also covered the recent war in Lebanon and the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany.

In 1992, Morenatti began work as a photographer with EFE, the Spanish news agency, in Seville, Spain.

The Tel Aviv-based Foreign Press Association, which represents foreign journalists covering Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, denounced the kidnapping.

“There can be no justification whatsoever for kidnapping journalists working to cover events inside Gaza, or anywhere else in the Palestinian territories,” the FPA said in a statement.

In the US, the media-advocacy groups Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists also condemned the abduction.

“We’re dismayed that journalists have become pawns of Palestinian groups seeking to exploit them for political purposes,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “These blatant attacks on journalists will have a chilling effect on their ability to do their work and will ultimately deprive the world of information about this critically important story.”