Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed the release Wednesday of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston in Gaza and called on the Palestinian abductors of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to free him as well. "I am happy and relieved that Alan Johnston has finally been released today after four long months in captivity," Steinmeier said in a statement issued in Berlin.
The reporter, who was seized in the Gaza Strip on March 12, was released unharmed in the early hours of Wednesday by his captors from the militant Army of Islam.
Gilad Shalit was abducted on June 25, 2006 by Palestinian militants who attacked an Israeli army post on the border with the Gaza Strip.
The military wing of Hamas released a tape on the first anniversary of his capture in which Shalit appealed for a prisoner-swap deal to secure his release.
