Two Fox News journalists were released today almost two weeks after being seized by militants, write Steve Busfield and agencies.
Cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, and correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials.
Centanni later told Fox News in a phone call from Gaza City that during his capture, he was held at times face down in a dark garage, tied up in painful positions, and that he and Wiig were forced at gunpoint to make statements, including that they had converted to Islam.
The journalists had been seized in Gaza City on August 14 by a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades. However, senior Palestinian security officials said the name was a front for local militants, and that Palestinian authorities had known the identity of the kidnappers from the start.
British friends and relatives of the television cameraman today spoke of their relief at their safe release.
In Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, where Mr Wiig has lived for six years with his wife, former BBC presenter Anita McNaught, there was relief.
Ms McNaught's aunt, Alison Mountain, who lives next door to the couple, said: "That's excellent news. It was getting a bit depressing when the deadline had passed and there was no news, but this is wonderful. You have your feelings about what has happened, but you just hope everything will turn out fine. It has obviously been worse for Anita than it has been for me, and I'm sure she is just relieved."
