Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist captured in the Gaza Strip over two months ago, is alive and well and could be freed ‘very, very soon,’ a Palestinian government spokesman said late Saturday.
Palestinian Prime Minister’s spokesman, Ghazi Hammad, hoped yesterday the BBC reporter, Alan Johnston, would be released ‘very soon’, saying Johnston is still alive and safe.
“ I know that he is safe and well and no body harmed him”, Hamamd said during a literary festival in Wales.
The Palestinian spokesman confirmed there are ongoing efforts to secure the release of Johnston and that he has been personally engaged in contacts for that purpose.
“ I can say that Johnston’s release is possible shortly”, Hammad assured.
On Masrch12, a group of masked gunmen kidnapped the veteran BBC reporter at a gunpoint in Gaza city, few weeks later a previously unknown group claimed it had executed him.
Early on May, the Army of Islam, a groups linked to Hamas, sent a footage to the Aljazeera Arabic satellite channel, in which it declared responsibility for the abduction and announced three demands for the release, including the release of Muslim prisoners in Britain.
Gordon Brown, the finance minister who succeeds Tony Blair as prime minister on June 27, was also at the festival, but it was not immediately clear if he had met the spokesman.
