Gunmen kidnap French TV crew's soundman in Gaza

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the kidnapping of France 3 TV crew soundman Mohamed Ouathi by three gunmen yesterday in Gaza and urged the Palestinian authorities to do everything possible to ensure that he is quickly released. "We call for Mohamed Ouathi's immediate and unconditional release and we ask the Palestinian authorities to react quickly so that he is freed as soon as possible," the organisation said. "The fact that his abductors did not have their faces covered shows that a degree of impunity and laxity prevails in Gaza." Ouathi and the three other members of the French TV station's crew - Gwenaëlle Lenoir, Michel Anglade and Franck Pairaud - were returning to their hotel when they were intercepted by the three gunmen. The other crew members were able to escape but Ouathi was taken off at gunpoint. In a statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the TV station condemned his abduction as a "violation of press freedom" and called for his "immediate release." It said it had alerted the French and Palestinian authorities and it called on the latter to do everything necessary to protect its crews working in the Gaza Strip.