A group of unknown militants kidnapped an Italian journalist in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir El-Balah on Saturday, Palestinian security sources reported.

The militants stopped the car of Lorenco Kremonizi, who works for the Italian Daily of Correra Del Laserra, taking Kremonizi, a local fixer and the driver of the car to an unknown place, the sources said.

According to the sources, the driver and the local fixer who works as Kremonizi's translator were freed soon after the kidnapping, but the Italian journalist was kept as a hostage.

No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. The incident came just days before the Israeli troops are due to complete withdrawal from the coastal strip.

Earlier on Saturday, dozens of members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of ruling Fatah movement, stormed a governorate building in the central Gaza Strip and asked for job opportunities, witnesses and security sources said.

They said that the militants suddenly showed up, entering the building by force and telling the employees they were demanding rights to live as ordinary Palestinians.

Officials of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) promised the militants that their problems would be resolved and they would immediately be merged into different Palestinian security apparatuses, the security sources added.

Source: Xinhua