Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held hostage in Gaza, was freed and handed over to Palestinian officials early today after a late-night deal with the al Qaeda-inspired group that kidnapped him in March. He said it was "amazing to be free" and that he had often been frightened during four months in captivity

Jul 4, 2007

GAZA, July 4 (AP, Reuters) - Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held hostage in Gaza, was freed and handed over to Palestinian officials early on Wednesday after a late-night deal with the al Qaeda-inspired group that kidnapped him in March.

The 45-year-old Briton, looking pale and frail, was embraced by BBC colleagues after he arrived by car at the home of Hamas's local leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.

"It is just the most fantastic thing to be free," he told BBC television live from Gaza, adding it was "at times quite terrifying".

Johnston was smiling and looked well despite four months in captivity as he was ushered inside amid a scrum of well-wishers and security guards with Kalashnikov rifles.

Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, said Johnston's release showed his Islamist movement was bringing order to the coastal enclave since seizing control last month after fighting with the Western-backed Fatah faction.

The BBC's Middle East bureau chief Simon Wilson said after speaking to Johnston by telephone: "He sounded well, he sounded fine. He sounded so amazingly composed ... He sounded tired.

"He just wanted to say thank you to everybody round the world (who had been campaigning for his release)," Wilson said in broadcast remarks, adding his colleague had been able to follow events on BBC radio during his captivity.

Palestinian officials said Johnston would hold a news conference with Haniyeh before being taken to British diplomats for a journey home through Israel.

Like most Western powers, Britain shuns Hamas for its refusal to abandon violence against the Jewish state and does not recognise Haniyeh's government in Gaza.

However, British diplomats based in Jerusalem have met Haniyeh in Gaza and discussed Johnston's plight in recent weeks.

In London, no immediate comment was available from the British Foreign Office.

Meshaal told Reuters by telephone from Syria: "We have been able to close this chapter which harmed the image of our people greatly. The efforts by Hamas have produced the freedom of Alan Johnston."

Referring to his rivals from the Fatah faction of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, he said: "It showed the difference between the era in which a group used to encourage and commit security anarchy and chaos and the current situation in which Hamas is seeking to stabilise security."

Johnston, the only Western correspondent working full-time in the troubled coastal enclave, went missing on March 12 when his car was found abandoned.

His captors later declared themselves to be the Army of Islam, a group with al Qaeda-inspired rhetoric and links to one of Gaza's powerful clans.

They issued Web videos showing Johnston and seeking the release of Islamists held prisoner by Britain and other states.

Most recently, after Hamas officials threatened to free him by force from the clan's stronghold, Johnston was shown wearing a suicide belt with the warning he would die if that happened.

Hamas, apparently eager to show its ability to impose order in Gaza after many months of factional fighting, had increased pressure on the hostage-takers to relent and had surrounded their neighbourhood late on Tuesday.

Members of Hamas' 6,000-person militia moved onto rooftops of high-rise buildings and deployed gunmen in streets of the Gaza City neighborhood inhabited by the Doghmush clan, the large, heavily armed family that leads the Army of Islam.

"The clocks have begun ticking toward the release of Alan Johnston," said Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad. "The operation of the interior ministry Executive Forces has started, and they are tightening the siege on the people involved in his kidnap."

Late Tuesday, the Doghmush clan released nine students loyal to Hamas that they kidnapped earlier in the week. Hamas officials and mediators said the release was meant to pave the way for Johnston's release.

Then four Army of Islam members were freed by Hamas, said Abu Mujahid from the Popular Resistance Committees, the militant group handling the negotiations. The four included an Army of Islam spokesman whose arrest Monday was seen as an effort to gain a potentially valuable bargaining chip.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Johnston's captors of smearing the Palestinian people's reputation and of seeking "to prove to the world that we are a group of militias that fight each other to gain personal ends."

The Army of Islam, whose formerly close relations with Hamas have soured, had demanded that Britain first release a radical Islamic cleric with ties to al-Qaida. It also had threatened to kill Johnston if Hamas tried to free him by force.

Hamas was elected to run the Palestinian government 18 months ago but was shunned by Israel and Western powers.

Its local leader, Haniyeh, still considers himself prime minister but Abbas has appointed an emergency government without Hamas involvement in the larger territory of the West Bank.

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