Three French citizens kidnapped in Gaza

Masked Palestinian gunmen have seized three French civilians in the Gaza Strip this evening.

Masked Palestinian gunmen have seized three French civilians in the Gaza Strip this evening.

The two women and a man had been sitting in a restaurant in the town of Khan Younis when the gunmen burst in and took them to the local Red Crescent headquarters, on a day in which a Palestinian police chief and an official were also abducted.

The gunmen, wielding automatic weapons, ordered workers to leave the headquarters and then fired shots from a window to ward off police who surrounded the building, witnesses said.

Palestinian security officials said the abduction was carried out by militants from the Abu al-Rish Brigades, which is linked to Mr Arafat's mainstream Fatah group.

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The officials, who identified those being held as French citizens, said the kidnappers had demanded to be reinstated in jobs Mr Arafat had fired them from.

In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry said it had no immediate information on the incident.

Earlier, in a challenge to Mr Arafat's authority, gunmen kidnapped Gaza Strip police chief Mr Ghazi al-Jabali but released him three hours later.

The shadowy Jenin Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for kidnapping of Mr Jabali in a road ambush, saying it had acted after years of inaction from the Palestinian Authority over what it called the police chief's mistakes.

A senior Palestinian official, who declined to be named, said Mr Jabali was freed after Mr Arafat agreed to put the police chief on trial for suspected corruption.