Palestinian Territories

Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held hostage in Gaza, was freed and handed over to Hamas officials early on Wednesday after a late-night deal with the al Qaeda-inspired group that abducted him in March. The 45-year-old Briton was embraced by BBC colleagues after he arrived by car at the home of Hamas's local leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. Johnston was smiling and looked well despite four months...

Ability to report freely has become a casualty in the ongoing battle for control over Gaza between rival Hamas and Fatah groups. From raids on news establishments and rampant abductions of journalists, to use of Press markings on vehicles by combatants, all have made reporting riskier than before in a conflict that draws some of the world's most intense media coverage. Dozens of armed members of...

Armed men attacked the headquarters of a Palestinian press agency in Gaza City Tuesday, employees said. The militants, most of them masked, broke into the offices of Palmedia and scared staff with aimless gunshots before seizing a computer and television editing equipment. Injuries were not reported. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) Wednesday condemned the impunity with which journalists are being...

An obscure Islamist group has threatened to behead female television broadcasters if they do not wear strict Islamic dress. The threat to "cut throats from vein to vein" was delivered by the Righteous Swords of Truth, a fanatical group that has previously claimed responsibility for bombing Internet cafes and music shops. The new threat was the first time the organisation targeted a specific group...

Israeli army Tuesday conducted raids on five Palestinian radio and TV stations in West Bank city Nablus, according to news reports. Some of the stations have stopped broadcasting because the soldiers removed the necessary equipment. “There was no justification for these raids and, even less so, for the confiscation of transmitting equipment from these stations,” Reporters sans Frontières (RSF)...

A journalist and a media worker were shot dead Sunday in a renewal of clashes between Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Gunmen wearing presidential guard uniforms stopped a taxi carrying Suleiman Abdul-Rahim al-Ashi, 25, an economics editor for the Hamas-affiliated daily Filistin ( Palestine), and Mohammad Matar Abdo, 25, a manager responsible for distribution and civic relations, Editor-in-Chief...

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston’s abductors have demanded $5 million for his release, the London-based Asharq Alawsat reported Tuesday even as the police in the Gaza Strip scuffled with journalists demonstrating in support the journalist. The demand for ransom contradicts reports circulated Sunday that Johnston had been executed, which Palestinian Authority security officials said they could...

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston began Monday his third week in captivity in the Gaza Strip wven as efforts were stepped up to secure his release. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) urged leaders attending an Arab League summit on March 28-29 in Saudi Arabia to issue a joint appeal for his release. BBC Middle East Bureau Editor Simon Wilson, right, listens to BBC Gaza correspondent Fayed Abu Shammala...

Masked Palestinian gunmen abducted a BBC correspondent from his car in Gaza City on Monday. As he was being taken away, the journalist threw a business card on the street that identified him as Alan Johnston of BBC, Palestinian security officials said. Alan Johnston was born in Tanzania and educated in Scotland. He joined BBC World Service in 1991 and has spent eight of the last 16 years as a...

Two journalists were bruised by Israeli stun grenades at an Israeli military checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah Thursday. Rami al-Faqih, a correspondent for the local Al-Quds Educational Television, and Iyad Hamad, a cameraman for the Associated Press, were each hit as Israeli border police fired at journalists covering a peaceful protest marking International Women’s...