PALESTINIAN JOURNALISTS HELPED KIDNAP WESTERN JOURNALISTS

IDF concerned over fate of BBC reporter abducted in Gaza (JPost)
Palestinian Authority security sources told The Jerusalem Post they were looking into reports that the BBC journalist’s kidnappers were aided by local Palestinian reporters. According to the sources, Palestinian journalists working with the international media in the Gaza Strip were linked to previous abductions of foreign journalists.

“We have evidence that some local reporters helped the kidnappers of the foreign reporters,” the sources said. “These journalists don’t want the foreigners to come to the Gaza Strip because they are taking their jobs.”

The sources pointed out that an investigation has revealed that Palestinian journalists were involved in the recent kidnapping of a Peruvian photographer working for AFP in the Gaza Strip, who was held for 10 days before he was released unharmed.

“A group of Palestinian journalists is causing heavy damage to the reputation of all their colleagues,” a senior PA security official said Tuesday. “Fortunately, this is a tiny group that does not represent all the Palestinian journalists. They are working with local gangsters belonging to large clans.” The official added that the two Fox newsmen who were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip several months ago had also been “betrayed” by Palestinian journalists…

A top Hamas official in Gaza City told the Post that the reports about the involvement of some Palestinian journalists in the spree of kidnappings were “not unfounded.”