Gaza militants kill Italian hostage

An August 29, 2008 file photo shows activist Vittorio Utmpio Arrigoni, from Italy, holding his passport during a protest against the Israeli siege on Gaza, in Gaza City. / AP

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- An Italian activist kidnapped in Gaza by Palestinian extremists inspired by al Qaeda was killed by his captors and found hanged several hours after his abduction, Gaza's Hamas rulers said early Friday.

Hamas officials said police stormed an apartment in Gaza City where Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, was being held by members of a small Islamic group that had kidnapped him on Thursday. Arrigoni was dead and the apartment was otherwise empty, the officials said.

In Rome, the Italian Foreign Ministry condemned what it called a "barbaric murder" and a "vile and irrational gesture of violence on the part of extremists indifferent to the value of a human life."

The group, calling itself Monotheism and Holy War, had released a video Thursday showing the kidnapped activist blindfolded and with cuts on his face, held in front of the camera by a fist gripping his hair. The group demanded that Hamas free its leader and two other members jailed by Hamas.

The abduction highlights challenges that Hamas — an Iran-backed group with a militant Islamist ideology that is considered a terror organization in the U.S., the European Union and elsewhere — has faced from smaller Islamic factions in Gaza. Some of these, including the one apparently behind Arrigoni's abduction, are inspired by al Qaeda and the world jihad movement.

Arrigoni had come to Gaza as a pro-Palestinian activist. According to a press release from his organization, the International Solidarity Movement, he had spent several years "monitoring human rights violations by Israel, supporting the Palestinian popular resistance against the Israeli occupation and disseminating information about the situation in Gaza to his home country of Italy."

Kidnappings of foreigners in Gaza took place with some regularity before Hamas took control of the territory in 2007. All were released unharmed. There had been no abductions since shortly after Hamas took power.

One of the leaders of the International Solidarity Movement, Huweida Arraf, condemned Arrigoni's "senseless killing."

"Vittorio was really loved in Gaza," she said. I didn't think there was even a 1 percent chance they would kill him. It was a complete shock."

The ISM has no immediate plans to pull its volunteers out of Gaza, she said.

Hamas said two people were arrested in another location in connection with the killing, and a third was being sought.

In a statement, the Hamas Interior Ministry said Arrigoni's captors killed him shortly after he was abducted midday Thursday. Salama Marouf, a Hamas government spokesman, said the killing was an act "against the humanity and against the custom and tradition of the Palestinian people."

Hamas' rivals from the Western-backed Palestinian government in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority, condemned the killing. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, called Arrigoni's death a "despicable and ugly crime."

He attributed it to a "situation of chaos and lawlessness" in Gaza under Hamas rule, and urged the Islamic group to end its rift with the Palestinian Authority.

Journalists were not allowed to see the body in the morgue and could not independently confirm the cause of death given by Hamas. An Italian doctor was on his way from Israel to examine the body, a Hamas official said.

Arrigoni's organization, the International Solidarity Movement, operates in the West Bank and Gaza. Its volunteers protest against Israel and interfere with the operations of the Israeli military.

In 2003, an American ISM activist, Rachel Corrie, was crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in a combat zone in southern Gaza while trying to block its path. A British activist with the group was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier in the same area that year.

[smurfula]

Look at them Afghanistans, genocided 3000 people, including Italians and many other races, by leveling the twin towers. We should have totally leveled every building in that country in the first 30 days. Now these Queda nutz hang ONE Italian? I am Italian, these countries are committing henious murderous crimes on EVERYONE. They need to be stopped, but, who will stop them?

[EJGB]

Solution as follows:

1. Drop millions of leaflets over Palestine/Gaza demanding immediate surrender of any and all individuals affiliated with or members of Hamas, Hezbollah, or other militant Islamist extremist groups - in ONE HOUR - or saturation bombing will begin.

2. When such conditions are not met (and they WON'T be), begin bombing.

To paraphrase Billy Mays: "KABOOM! and the problems GONE!!"

[askagain]

Mr. Arrigoni should have chosen his friends more carefully. Here he is an Islamic supporter and pro-Palestinian supporter and they kill him. Hard to have sympathy for the guy.

[EJGB]

The solution is simple, really.

Have an airdrop of millions of leaflets over Palestine demanding the immediate surrender of all persons affiliated with Hamas, Hezbollah, or any of the known Islamic terrorist groups - within 2 hours - or bombing commences.

To paraphrase Billy Mays: "KABOOM! And the problem's GONE!!"

[dogsoul]

...so, this poor mope buys into the idea that Israel is evil - and the Palestinians, Islam - heck, even the terrorists are the victim of this evil. Okay.... so, he goes off & defends the terrorists against evil Israel - only to find that these poor victims grab him, torture him & then murder him in cold blood simply because he's a westerner & it might help further their political agenda. You see - this is but a snippet that exemplifies this 'struggle' - heck, you see it in situations like in Pakistan where a Muslim was arrested & even cleared of blasphemy charges - yet he was hunted down & murdered as well. They LOOK for ANY reason they can to engage in acts of murder - or better yet, murder/suicide because that's the golden ticket to martyrdom - and it doesn't take much - heck, draw a cartoon of Mohammed & you might just be next on their list. The very existence of any sort of non-Muslim anyone or anything is in their minds an affront to Allah that, by command, must be met with death. So really.... unless & until we all decide to convert to Islam (and probably a specific variety therein) & be governed by strict Islamic Republics - we can expect they'll find ample justification to murder us. Ultimately, if it were some offshoot of Jordanian or even European Muslims who carved out a country called Israel after WWII instead of non-Muslim Jews - there wouldn't BE any issue. And yet.... all we hear from liberals is how awful Jews & Christians are... must be interesting always having to live in bizarro-land.

[doubt1]

Hatred is a very powerful motivator.

[jnostromo]

Further proof that you cannot deal with terrorists with talking and reason..brute force and extermination is the only solution to radical islamism..A united Crusade to wipe these vermin from the face of the earth is what is needed and the neutron is the way to do it

[hillbillyvol]

The ultimate solution as diplomacy and logic and compromise have failed due to the fact these people are heathen. Neutron elimination seems to be the safest.

[Zowwyy]

The arab world is becoming more useless to me by the day.. Either join the civilized 21st century or bomb them back to the stone age.

[ricscore]

The man was stupid to think he was ever safe. Why do people put their big noses were it doesn't belong. Did he really think his presents make a difference? Israel with the backing of the US needs to go in Gaza with a bulldozers and tanks, and send the insane people there to Syria or Iran were there is plenty of land.

[skepticalJM]

This is the result of the so-called war on Terror which George Bush instituted and Obama continues, for no other reason than to spread markets to a new third world area. Ten years of the stupidity of wars against Nations that were no threat to us, and Billions of dollars in useless Intelligence and security, which never even came close to finding the real culprits... Osaam Bin Laden and al Qaeda. This stupid policy has spread al Qaeda, and jihad across the Arab world instead of containing it. This is what happens when shadow warriors take the place of soldiers, and the military is used as a tool of business practice, instead of the enforcement of the law of a democratic people.