GAZA CITY, Dec 28: Three members of a British family on Wednesday became the latest foreigners to be kidnapped in Gaza after being abducted near the Egyptian border, diplomatic and Palestinian security sources said.

Witnesses said a group of gunmen snatched a woman, her father and mother, and bundled them in to a white Mercedes near the border with Egypt.

A spokesman for the British consulate in east Jerusalem confirmed the kidnappings but without releasing the trio’s identities.

“I can confirm that three British nationals have been kidnapped in southern Gaza,” the spokesman told AFP. “We have asked the PA (Palestinian Authority) to investigate.”

The spokesman and local security sources said that it was understood that the kidnappers belonged to a group known as the Black Panthers, an armed offshoot of the mainstream Fatah movement.

The younger woman worked for a human rights organization and was based in Gaza City, the sources added.

The security sources said they were searching the area for the gunmen and the trio, the latest in a line of foreigners to be kidnapped in the Gaza Strip.

More than a dozen foreigners, mostly journalists and aid workers, have been abducted in the lawless Palestinian territory this year.

Last Wednesday, the Dutch principal of the prestigious American School and his Australian deputy were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip but released within hours.—AFP