Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which claimed to have kidnapped an Israeli Saturday transferred the individual in question, a U.S. citizen, to the custody of the Palestinian Authority before dawn Sunday. The Palestinian Authority subsequently handed the American over to the IDF.
"Apparently, the kidnappers did not want to end up like Zarqawi," a defense official said.
Initially, the terrorists believed that Benjamin Bright-Fishbein, a student at Brown University, who was snatched from a coffee shop in Nablus where he was traveling as a tourist, was from Jerusalem that threatened to kill him if Israel did not free Palestinian prisoners.
"It was a mistake, a really big mistake," Bright-Fishbein said, looking drawn after his ordeal. "Everything is fine. I am in a safe place," he said.
Bright-Fishbein recounted how he had been abducted by a gunman called Ahmed who bumped into him in a coffee shop where the student, who speaks Arabic, had been smoking a water pipe.
"He (Ahmed) had a pistol, a grenade and a machinegun. I didn't want to be in his company, but it seemed I didn't have any choice at that point," Bright-Fishbein said.
For the videotaped statement, Bright-Fishbein was dressed in the skullcap of a religious Jew. Looking into the camera he said "If the prisoners are not released, they will execute me."
The Shin Bet was trying to obtain information Saturday on Bright-Fishbein, and to discover whether he went to Nablus of his own volition or was secretly abducted to the city. The defense establishment has had warnings for some time of kidnappings of Israelis for the purpose of negotiating the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails - a matter of wide consensus in the territories.
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