Palestinian gunmen abducted an Associated Press photographer in Gaza on Tuesday morning, according to the AP and the Spanish Foreign Ministry.According to a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman who asked not to identified, the photographer's name is Emilio Morenatti.
"They kidnapped him today as he left his home," the spokeswoman said. "It was about 7:30 a.m. local time in Gaza."
According to the AP, "Morenatti, 37 ... was leaving his temporary apartment in Gaza, heading toward a car where Majed Hamdan, an AP driver and translator, was waiting. Hamdan said four gunmen grabbed his keys and phone and told him to turn away, pressing a gun to his head and threatening to harm him if he moved." The gunmen then grabbed Morenatti, shoved him into a white Volkswagen and drove off, AP reported.
According to AP, Morenatti is from Jerez, Spain, and has been working for the news agency in Jerusalem since April 2005. He periodically makes trips to the Palestinian territories.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos "has gotten personally involved" to try to find out what happened and will use his contacts in the Middle East -- where he has worked or visited for years as a diplomat -- to press for the release of Morenatti....
AP president and chief executive officer Tom Curley issued a statement...
"The Associated Press is working to find out just what happened to Emilio. We are in contact with Palestinian officials and leaders to learn more, and to try and obtain his release. Our main concern now, however, is for his safety."Emilio has spent his career representing the values that AP stands for -- truthful, accurate journalism that tells all sides of the story. It is a sad development when the men and women the world rely on to bring them objective news are subject to such dangers. No cause or motive can justify such senseless action."
I agree with the AP that "no cause or motive can justify such senseless action," but "Palestinian gunmen" operate with impunity, and have for decades. And the AP has been recording it all along the way; surely they are not surprised by this.
I wonder how much they will pay the terrorists.
Morenatti's name is familiar to me... I've posted at least a dozen of his photos here at BtB, and some of them, I treasure.
An ultra-Orthodox Jew and an Israeli soldier [Two Jews] pray at the Western wall, Judaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City Thursday March 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A young Jewish settler wears an eye patch with the Israeli flag painted on it during celebrations marking Israel's 57th Independence Day in the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, part of the Gush Katif bloc of settlements, in the southern Gaza Strip Thursday May 12, 2005. Thousands were visiting the Gaza settlements on the holiday in a show of solidarity with the settlers and to protest the planned evacuation.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
An [Ethiopian-Israeli] woman holds a flower during the prayer of the Sigd holy day on a hill overlooking Jerusalem, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005. The prayer is performed by Ethiopian Jews every year to celebrate their community's connection and commitment to Israel. About 80,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, many of them came in massive Israeli airlifts during times of crisis in Ethiopia in 1984 and 1991. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A Palestinian Islamic Jihahd militant, holding a rocket propelled grenade launcher, stands on top of a synagogue in the former Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim ... (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A Palestinian woman drags a piece of furniture, taken from a synagogue ... (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Um Ahmed, 36, a mother of eight, holds what she claims is a suicide belt, as she sits for an interview with journalists in the village of Abasa, near the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis Wednesday July 5, 2006. She is one of a group of at least 20 women in the village that are given, according to the local al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades commander, suicide belts every night in preparation for an expected Israeli assault on the town. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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