Nearly four months after he was kidnapped at gunpoint, BBC journalist Alan Johnston was released on Wednesday in Gaza following an agreement between his abductors and the Islamist Hamas movement.
The BBC reporter was handed over to officials of the Hamas administration in the early hours on Wednesday. Describing his abduction as an "appalling experience", Johnston, 45, said it was "fantastic" to be free. "He was freed following an agreement with his kidnappers and he is in good health," a Hamas statement said.
Johnston, an award-winning journalist, was the only Western reporter still based permanently in the Gaza Strip when he was snatched at gunpoint on March 12. The Army of Islam, the extremist group which claimed to have kidnapped the reporter, had threatened to kill him if any rescue attempt is made. On June 24, Johnston appeared in a video, saying he was wearing a bomb-belt that his captors would detonate if there was any attempt to rescue him.
The kidnappers had demanded the release of prisoners held in Britain and Jordan, have accused Hamas of exerting undue pressure for Johnston's release in spiralling tensions between the two groups. Appearing outside the house of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, Johnston said he had been unable to see the sun for three months, and was once chained for 24 hours. "I literally dreamt many times of being free and always woke up back in that room," he said.
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