Spokesman for missiing BBC reporter’s captors held by Hamas

A spokesman for the Palestinian militant group which says it kidnapped the BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was detained by Hamas yesterday amid apparent efforts by the group to increase pressure on the militants to free the reporter.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the detention of Khattab al-Maqdisi and those of two other members of the group last week came “after all negotiation attempts … failed to free the abducted journalist.” Mr Johnston was seized 16 weeks ago yesterday on his way home from his office in Gaza City. The move came amid public indications from Hamas leaders that their patience was running out with the failure of the group to release Mr Johnston. Ahmed Yusef, a senior adviser and aide to Ismail Haniyeh, who has refused to accept his dismissal as Palestinian Prime Minister by the President, Mahmoud Abbas, said: “For a couple of months we used the policy of the carrot but it is not working. If not, we have to use the stick policy.”

Earlier Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, said Mr Maqdisi was detained after he opened fire on members of Hamas’s security forces in Gaza City. He said Hamas would investigate claims by the Army of Islam - a small armed group widely linked to members of the Dogmush clan in Gaza - that Mr Maqdisi was injured in the arrest.

Mr Abu Zuhri also accused the clan of abducting 10 Hamas students last month by force. The Army of Islam claimed its spokesman was arrested while leaving morning prayers. The Interior Ministry said Hamas acted after the “use of peaceful means failed to free” Mr Johnston and added: “The arrests are targeting figures who were involved in the abduction of the journalist.”

In a statement posted on militant and fundamentalist web sites, the Army of Islam threatened, in an apparent reference to Hamas, to “release some documents that reveal the truth about some personalities who have tricked the Muslim community.” Last week the Army of Islam posted a video of Mr Johnston wearing what he said was an explosives belt that his captors would detonate if there was an attempt to storm the Gaza City compound where he is thought to be held.

n Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli whistleblower jailed for 18 years for revealing details of the country’s nuclear programmein 1986, was sentenced to another six months for violating the terms of his parole by talking to foreign journalists and visiting Bethlehem.

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