News photographer kidnapped in Gaza

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GAZA CITY - A Spanish photographer working with the Associated Press news agency was kidnapped Tuesday in the increasingly lawless Gaza Strip by unknown gunmen, witnesses said.

The photographer, Emilio Morenatti, was seized by four armed and masked men as he left his home in Gaza City early morning, the witnesses said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility.

There was no immediate comment from the bureau in Jerusalem of the US-based news agency.

Morenatti has covered numerous conflicts around the world, including in Afghanistan.

Kidnappings of Westerners in the Palestinian territories, which have been plunged into an unprecedented financial and political crisis since the Islamist Hamas movement formed a government in March, have increased over the past few months.

In August, two journalists working for the US-based Fox News television network spent 13 days in captivity after being kidnapped by a previously unknown group, the Holy Jihad Brigades.

The pair, American Steve Centanni and his freelance cameraman, New Zealander Olaf Wiig, was released on August 27. They said they had been forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam.