West Bank militants claimed today to have kidnapped an Israeli man who said in a videotaped statement that his captors would kill him if Israel did not free Palestinian prisoners.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which issued a copy of the tape, said the man was kidnapped near the West Bank city of Nablus. The group said he was an Israeli.
There was no immediate confirmation of a kidnapping and the Israeli army was checking the report. Militants have made false claims about kidnappings before, but have never produced videos showing abductees.
The man in the tape appeared to be in his 20s and held up an identity card from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem which gave his name as Benjamin Bright-Fishbein. He wore the skullcap of a religious Jew.
"If the prisoners are not released, they will execute me," he said in Arabic.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.