GAZA (PIC)– The BBC bureau in Gaza Strip has organized a party in celebration of the safe release of its former correspondent in Gaza Strip Alan Johnston who was kidnapped and kept in captivity for nearly four months before Hamas Movement succeeded in safely freeing him a couple of weeks ago.
The rally was attended by representatives of the Palestinian resistance factions journalists and non-government organizations in the Strip.
In a speech he delivered on the occasion Fayed Abu Shammalah the BBC bureau chief in Gaza expressed gratitude to the Palestinian journalists and to all those who helped in rescuing Johnston.
He also added that the BBC will continue its work in Gaza Strip so as to reveal the truth about the Palestinian people’s suffering under the Israeli occupation explaining that Aleem Makboul was appointed by the BBC as the new correspondent in Gaza.
Makboul is a British national of Pakistani origin.
Other BBC officials hailed the release of Johnston and thanked all those involved in his release first and foremost Hamas Movement among other parties.
Johnston himself addressed the participants with a written message read on his behalf by Abu Shammalah where he stated “It is difficult to find the words to express my gratitude to the great job you had done for my safe release” vowing to always remember his Palestinian comrades in the profession for that great job.
He also added that the Palestinian people are great people and that his abductors were a small group of individuals deviated from the Palestinian values and weren’t representing the Palestinian people.
Hamas Movement played the main role in freeing Johnston from his kidnappers only few days after it became responsible for security in the Strip after it defeated the “mischievous” PA security apparatuses who failed to free Johnston despite their large number in the Strip.
The British government also thanked Hamas Movement for the role it played in freeing Johnston.
Britain is one of the countries that participated and still is participating in the wing-clipping economic embargo against Hamas Movement and the Palestinian people for more than 19 months now for practicing genuine democracy and for willingly electing Hamas to rule them in 2006.
