Spanish journalist kidnapped in Gaza Strip

Updated at 8.20pm

GAZA CITY: A Spanish journalist was kidnapped by gunmen Monday in the Gaza Strip, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said.   

The journalist was snatched by four armed men from a car near the town of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and bundled into another vehicle, witnesses said.   

A female Spanish national who was accompanying the reporter was let go, they said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction.

The Spanish consulate in east Jerusalem could not confirm the report.   

"We are looking into it, but it is not something we can confirm at the moment," an official at the consulate said.   

Last week, a Spanish photographer for the US-based Associated Press news agency was held by Gaza gunmen for some 15 hours before being released unharmed.   

Emilio Morenatti, 37, was seized by four masked and armed men as he left his residence in the center of Gaza City early on October 24. He was released late Tuesday. No one claimed responsibility for the abduction.   

Kidnappings of foreigners have increased in the impoverished Palestinian territory, which has been seized by an unprecedented financial and political crisis for months.   

Most of the foreigners have been released unharmed within days.   

In August, two journalists for the US Fox News television network spent 13 days in captivity of a previously unknown militant group, Holy Jihad Brigades.