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Gaza militants abduct foreign photographer | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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GAZA, (Reuters) – Palestinian militants kidnapped a Peruvian photographer working for the French press agency in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Agence France-Presse and Palestinian security sources said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction of Jaime Razuri.

Militants in Gaza have abducted foreigners in the past, usually to try to put pressure on the Palestinian government to give them jobs.

The photographer was seized while entering the agency’s office in Gaza City.

In northern Gaza, internal tensions between rival Palestinian factions Hamas, which leads the Palestinian government, and Fatah flared as unknown assailants abducted three Hamas members and one from Fatah, security sources said.

The groups declared a truce in December to end weeks of deadly violence, which intensified after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, head of Fatah, called for new elections. The militant group Hamas won a parliamentary ballot in January.

In two separate incidents in October, gunmen in Gaza seized and held a Spanish aid worker and a photographer working for the Associated Press news agency for several hours.

In August, Gaza militants kept two journalists from the U.S. Fox News channel captive for two weeks.