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Kidnapped Fox Team Released

Two Fox News journalists, abducted in the Gaza Strip on August 14, were released on Sunday, and both journalists reported to be in good condition. Fox`s Steve Centanni, 60, of the United States and his New Zealand-born cameraman, Olaf Wiig, 36, were abducted by a group called the Holy Jihad Brigades. Their abductors released a videotape of the journalists on early Sunday, saying that the two had converted to Islam, Fox News reported.

The abductors had originally warned the United States to free Muslim prisoners to prevent the captives facing unspecified consequences, but the deadline expired yesterday. Centanni told reporters that he and Wiig had been forced to convert to Islam, and often had guns pointed at them. Kidnappings of foreigners in the Gaza Strip often occurs, and the group responsible for Centanni`s and Wiig`s abduction was a previously unknown group that Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh said was connected to the Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Centanni told Fox News, his network, after being released that "We were driving down a narrow side-street in Gaza City, dropping off our security guide, when a car stopped in front of us. Then, before we realized it, the kidnappers swarmed our car, yanked us out, stuffed us in a car, and put a black hood on our head." The husband of Olaf Wiig made more than one passionate appeal for her husband`s release.