Jerusalem - German public broadcaster ARD on Wednesday
closed its office in the Gaza Strip in protest against the detention
of one of its cameramen by Hamas five days earlier, while Israel's
Foreign Press Association again called for his release.
Sawaf Abu Saif was arrested in a crackdown by the radical Islamic
Palestinian movement on its rivals, including the moderate Fatah
party of President Mahmoud Abbas.
The crackdown in the Hamas-controlled salient followed a series of
bombings in and around Gaza City on Friday in which six people were
killed and for which Hamas is blaming Fatah.
Hamas officials reportedly accuse Abu Saif of being a Fatah
sympathizer.
ARD had learned that he was in poor health, officials at the
broadcaster's headquarters in Saarbruecken in south western Germany
said.
ARD was 'deeply concerned' about him, ARD Chairman Fritz Raff
said, adding that under the cirucumstances, the work of journalists
in Gaza was no longer possible.
'Everyone who works with him know and say the allegations against
him are baseless.'
Members of Hamas' internal security service broke into Abu Saif's
house at dawn on Saturday and seized his laptop and cellular phone
and took him with them, his family said.
Israeli's Foreign Press Association in a statement calling for his
release, warned of the consequences of acting against foreign
journalists based in Gaza.
'Events such as this seriously affect the international media's
ability to cover Gaza. Without basic guarantees of safety, such
coverage is likely to decrease, to the detriment of Gaza's people and
the free practice of journalism,' the association warned.
The de-facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip on Monday
banned three major West Bank-based Palestinian dailies in the
salient.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said it blocked their distribution
in the Gaza Strip because of what it described as their unfair
coverage of a bombing attack on a Hamas car on Friday.
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