 British officials confirmed that the 24-year-old woman worked in Gaza for the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza City, which has criticised recent kidnappings of foreign nationals in the Palestinian territory.
| I did a little looking at the Al-Mezan Center. Their name keeps coming up as the documenters of the Jenin 'massacre'. |
Staff there named her as Kate Burton, the group's co-ordinator for international affairs, who began work for the centre when she arrived from Britain four months ago. Residents said Ms Burton had been showing her parents around town when they were seized by gunmen who approached their car at 4pm.
| "... and over here, Mum, is the lovely tribute to Yasser -- HEY! Get your hands off of me! Hey! Stop that! Mum! Someone! Call the police! oh these are the police ..." |
They were said to have been bundled into a white Mercedes security vehicle by the kidnappers who sped off northwards pursued by a security vehicle which provided cover. The car escaped and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The co-ordinator of Al Mezan in Gaza City, Samir Zakout, said: "She knows the security situation in Gaza. It's strange she went alone [without Palestinian acccompaniment]. I think her parents arrived yesterday. They may have gone to Rafah to see demolished houses."
| Hey Ma! Let's go look at some rubble! |
Another Al Mezan spokesman said she had taken time off since Thursday to be with her parents: "Her parents were visiting her. She was taking them around to show them the area. We heard there had been a young person kidnapped and two older people with her. From the description it seems the one kidnapped is our employee. We are trying to communicate with police and the political parties, but we don't have any clear information about what's going on. We are trying to call her on her mobile but it's closed.
| "We're sorry. The number you are calling has been abducted!" |
"We are searching all the areas to find her and have her safe. You try to protect everybody here but sometimes you cannot control everything."
| "In fact, in Gaza you cannot control anything." |
Recent kidnappings of foreigners in Gaza have ended with hostages being released unharmed. In most cases, the kidnappers sought to pass the Paleo civil service exam jobs in the Palestinian security forces, the release of jailed relatives, or resolution of personal matters. But the kidnapping is another embarrassment for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
| Poor Mahmoud's lost track of his many embarrassments by now... |
| Is this an embarrassment or an accomplishment? |
His critics have accused him of giving in to kidnappers' demands, and so encouraging more abductions. Gaza has seen a rash of kidnappings since Israel quit the coastal territory in September after 38 years of occupation, a move welcomed internationally as a potential spur to peace but which left the Palestinian Authority struggling for control.
| Actually, it demonstrated that they're no more capable of governing anything than they are of sprouting wings and flying to Hoboken... |
Recent kidnappings of foreigners have tended to end with the hostages freed within hours, usually for a ransom.
| I'll bet there are guys sitting around in the hills of Yemen, scratching their turbans and saying "Damn! Those guys are primitive!" |
The Foreign Office confirmed there had been a kidnapping but gave no details or hostages' identities. A spokesman said: "We confirm reports of three Britons missing in the Occupied Territories. At this stage we have no further details."
| "We know nothing! No-thing! Tell them, Hogan!" |
Palestinian security spokesman Adnan Barbach confirmed that the three were British. John Strawson, a reader in law at Birzeit University in the West Bank and a Middle East expert, said it was likely the trio would be released unharmed. "Unlike in Iraq, kidnappings are not so much aimed at the foreigners themselves as at embarrassing the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and trying to show he has no control over the Gaza Strip," he said. "The main aim is just to demonstrate that no-one is safe. I suspect they will be released unharmed - it will be a big change to the situation if anything happened to them."
| Well, it's not like the Euros would do anything about it. |
Five days ago the Foreign Office tightened its travel advice against visits to the Gaza Strip after the kidnap of two westerners by gunmen. British nationals are "strongly advised" against all travel to the Gaza Strip. Earlier this month the Al Mezan Centre condemned the kidnapping of the principal of Gaza's American School and his assistant. In a statement the group said it considered the kidnapping of foreigners "a continuation of the state of insecurity and disrespect of the rule of the law" and said it reconfirmed its "condemnation of such incidents". |