GAZA, Jan 1: Masked Palestinian gunmen briefly kidnapped an Italian peace activist in the Gaza Strip and blew up a United Nations club on Sunday in separate incidents that underscored growing internal unrest. They dealt an embarrassing blow to President Mahmoud Abbas just hours after he had vowed to end disorder that threatens to derail a Jan 25 election and as militant groups spurned his urging to renew a truce with Israel.

The gunmen seized the hostage, Alessandro Bernardini, during a visit by a delegation of 18 Italians before the parliamentary election. Three British hostages were set free in Gaza on Friday.

The victim was the last member of the group to head towards the group’s bus as they left an office in the southern city of Khan Younis. Suddenly a white car stopped beside him and the gunmen leapt out.

“The gunmen fired three times into the air, forced the man into their car and sped away,” said Mohammad Murad, a bus driver who witnessed the scene.

The Palestinian Preventive Security force, an elite internal security unit, said it had surrounded the house where the hostage was being held and that the kidnappers then fled, leaving him behind.

Looking shaken but unhurt, the Italian was led by masked security men into their headquarters in Gaza City.

An offshoot of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Mr Abbas’s own ruling Fatah movement, said it had carried out the kidnapping.

The faction calling itself Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades-Sunni People said its demands were a full investigation into the death of late leader Yasser Arafat and the removal of corrupt leaders from Fatah.

CONDEMNATION: Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the kidnapping as harmful to the quest for a state.