GAZA, July 3 The group holding BBC reporter Alan Johnston released him to Hamas early Wednesday, the British network reported.
Video footage on Hamas Television showed Johnston, accompanied by armed men, getting into a car.
Johnson, at the time the only European reporter based in Gaza, was kidnapped almost four months ago by a group using the name Army of Islam. The group is led by Mumtaz Dogmush, head of a powerful clan in Gaza that opposes Hamas.
Hamas leaders, who have controlled Gaza since driving out the Fatah Party, had refused to negotiate with the group and threatened it with destruction if Johnston was harmed. The Army of Islam, which recently offered to submit the kidnapping and other abductions on both sides to a Shariah law committee, threatened to kill Johnston if any effort was made to release him by force.
Journalists around the world protested the kidnapping, including many in the Palestinian Authority.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
