Johnston kidnappers 'afraid' to release him

The kidnappers of BBC reporter Alan Johnston fear they will be harmed if they release him now that Hamas is in control of Gaza, a senior Hamas official said.

Mahmoud Zahar, a hardline Hamas leader, has been overseeing negotiations with The Army of Islam, which claims to hold the correspondent. Johnston was snatched from a Gaza City street on March 12.

“The kidnappers are afraid, afraid,” Zahar said in a lecture at a Gaza mosque.

Hamas took over the Gaza Strip last week and vowed to crack down on anarchy, which apparently prompted the concerns of the shadowy hardline group. The Army of Islam has in the past demanded that Britain free a jailed Muslim militant in exchange for Johnston’s release.

Hamas is still trying to convince the group – believed to have some links to Hamas – that it would not be targeted if Johnston is handed over, even providing “written guarantees,” Zahar said. But the group also fears other factions will attack it, he said.

The Army of Islam is dominated by the Doghmush family, a powerful Gaza clan with its own large militia. Although the group participated in a Hamas-backed operation to kidnap Israeli Cpl Gilad Shalit last year, its relations with the militant Muslim group have since soured.

Hamas had vowed last week to use all means to release the Briton. But Zahar’s comments indicated Hamas may be taking a softer line toward the kidnappers.

Johnston had reported from Gaza since 2005 and was the only foreign journalist to remain based there after Palestinian infighting erupted last year. There has been a series of kidnappings of foreign journalists in Gaza in the past two years, but Johnston’s captivity has been the longest.

Regarding Shalit’s capture, Zahar said Hamas is willing to renew negotiations over his release in exchange for an Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners.

Shalit was seized in a cross-border raid by Hamas and two smaller militant groups on June 25 last year. So far, Egyptian mediation attempts to exchange Shalit for Palestinian prisoners have failed.

“If Israel wants to begin at the point where we stopped, there is a possibility to complete the exchange deal,” Zahar said.