Update: Gunmen Release AP Photographer in Gaza

UPDATE:

Tom Curley, President and CEO of The Associated Press, released the following statement regarding Emilio Morenatti,  who was abducted by Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip earlier Tuesday:

"The Associated Press is relieved that Emilio has been released, apparently unharmed. The security of our journalists is always our top concern. We appreciate the assistance offered by so many people in obtaining his release, especially the Palestinian Authority and the office of the foreign minister of Spain. It is crucial, however, that journalists such as Emilio be able to freely report the news in areas of conflict. We will be investigating what happened to assure that he and others can continue their important work."

Our original story after the jump.

In the newest in a recent spate of journalist kidnappings, an Associated Press photographer was abducted by Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip Tuesday.

Emilio Morenatti, a Spanish photographer who has been shooting for the AP since April 2004, was grabbed as he was leaving his apartment to meet his AP driver and translator, Majed Hamdan. While Hamdan was waiting for Morenatti, four gunmen grabbed his keys and phone and pressed a gun to his head, threatening to harm him if he moved. The men then grabbed Morenatti, shoved him into a white Volkswagen and drove off, Hamdan said.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, which has been condemned by Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, as well as Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of the moderate Fatah Party, and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos have also promised to personally see to Morenatti’s well-being and safe return.

Such journalist kidnappings have become disturbingly common in Middle East hot spots. Italian freelance photographer Gabriele Torsello and his Afghan translator were abducted Oct. 14 in Southern Afghanistan. Two weeks before that, two German journalists working for Germany’s national broadcaster were killed in northern Afghanistan. In August Fox News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig were taken hostage in Gaza and released two weeks later.

As part of his assignment to Jerusalem, since April 2005, Morenatti had periodically traveled to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, where he had been this time since Sunday.

Morenatti spent a year covering the conflict in Afghanistan for the AP and has also covered the recent war in Lebanon and the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany for the news agency. His photography career began in 1992, when he started working with the Spanish news agency EFE in Seville, Spain.

-- Miki Johnson