UPDATED: EUROPEANS KIDNAPPED IN GAZA

British, Austrian engineers kidnapped in Gaza.
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Two engineers from Britain and Austria were being held at a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip after being kidnapped by a Palestinian family trying to secure the release of their jailed relatives. A fellow employee of the two men, who asked for the pair not to be identified but confirmed that they were Austrian and British nationals, said the pair had been abducted overnight from outside their house in Gaza City.

British diplomats said they were liaising with the Palestinian Authority to try to secure the pair’s release. “We are working with the Palestinian Authority. We have consulate staff in Gaza liaising with Palestinian officials,” Ross Allen, a spokesman for the British consulate in east Jerusalem told AFP.

A spokesman for the Palestinian interior ministry confirmed that the pair were being held at the Bureij refugee camp, to the south of Gaza City. “We can confirm that two foreigners have been kidnapped and are being held at the Bureij camp by members of a family. It is not related to any political activity but a family dispute,” the spokesman told AFP.

“The interior ministry is pursuing this matter seriously. (Interior minister) General (Nasr) Yussef has given instructions to all the security branches to work to solve this case as soon as possible.” Security sources said that the family behind the abductions were trying to put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to secure the release of seven of their relatives who are currently in prison for activity that is not related to the conflict with Israel.

UPDATE: Palestinian kidnappers release foreign aid workers