Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni was discovered dead in an abandoned house in
Gaza City on Friday morning.
Hamas announced on Saturday that its
security forces had arrested two men in connection with the kidnapping/
murder.
RELATED:Shin Bet nabs Hamas terror cell planning kidnappingsIDF foils plan to kidnap soldierThe case is seen as one of the most serious challenges to Hamas
since it took full control over the Gaza Strip in the summer of
2007.
Arrigoni, who had been living in the Gaza Strip for three years, is
the first foreign national to be kidnapped and murdered under Hamas, which has
prided itself on its success in ending the state of anarchy and lawlessness that
prevailed when the Palestinian Authority ruled the Strip.
The
Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry said that efforts were under way to capture
other suspects in the case.
Hamas did not name the suspects, or say to
which group they belonged.
Sources in the Gaza Strip, however, said the
suspects were part of an al-Qaida cell called Tawheed wal-Jihad.
The
suspects apparently received instructions to murder the Italian man through the
Internet, the sources said.
Several Hamas and Fatah websites tried over
the weekend to hold Israel responsible, saying they did not rule out the
possibility that the murder was aimed at foiling a protest flotilla that is
expected to head to the Gaza Strip in the coming days.
Arrigoni’s
kidnappers released a video on Thursday in which he appeared alive, but badly
beaten and bloodied.
The kidnappers demanded the release of the leader of
Tawheed wal-Jihad, Hisham Saidani, who was arrested by Hamas authorities in the
Gaza Strip last month.
The kidnappers threatened to execute Arrigoni if
their leader was not released by 5 p.m. on Friday.
A suspect arrested by
Hamas security forces a few hours after the abduction is believed to have led
investigators to the house where the Italian activist had been
strangled.
The group that had originally claimed responsibility for the
murder of Arrigoni later backtracked and denied any link to the case.
One
of the leaders of the group, who asked not to be identified for security
reasons, told Palestinian journalists that he “strongly condemned the murder,
which does not reflect our group’s policy in any way or serve its
interests.”
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh also condemned the murder
of Arrigoni, who was a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity
Movement.
Haniyeh phoned Arrigoni’s mother on Saturday and told her that
his government would do its utmost to lay its hands on the perpetrators and
bring them to trial.
Haniyeh revealed that Arrigoni had been killed
before the expiration of the deadline set by his kidnappers, saying this proved
their only intention was to kill the activist.
“This crime does notexpress the values and morals of the Palestinians,” Haniyeh said. “Nor does it
express our people’s nobility, culture and shining history.”
PA President
Mahmoud Abbas also condemned the murder and ordered the PA prosecutor-general to
open an investigation.
Abbas’s legal adviser, Hassan al- Oury, said those
responsible would be charged with “high treason,” a crime punishable by death
according to PA laws.
Oury described the slain Italian activist as a
“staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and one of the freedom fighters who
defended the liberty and independence of the Palestinian
people.”
Arrigoni was a Palestinian soldier who was killed on the
battlefield, the adviser said.
Residents of the small town near Milan
from which Arrigoni hailed expressed “dismay and sorrow” over his
slaying.
Tattooed on his arms and with an eyebrow stud, Arrigoni came
from Bulciago, a quiet town of some 2,700 inhabitants about 35 km. north of
Milan. Egidia Arrigoni, the mother of the slain man, is mayor of
Bulciago.
He had been in the Palestinian territories on and off for a
decade.
The 36-year-old, who often wore a black worker’s cap, identified
himself as one of a community who, unlike “governments complicit with the
Zionist Israeli government, are ready to devote their lives to come to embrace
their brothers in Gaza.”
Egidia Beretta, whom Arrigoni telephoned
regularly, said they had spoken a few days earlier.
“It was calm, we
talked about what he was up to, what was happening in our family. He was
planning his return,” she told Italian television.
Town councilor
Raffaella Purricelli said Bulciago residents had been very upset by news of the
abduction and killing, and a public meeting was planned for later on
Friday.
“There is dismay and sorrow for Vittorio,” he told Reuters.
“Bulciago is a simple town, where solidarity toward the needy is very important.
We share what Vittorio used to say, ‘Stay human,’” he said.
Arrigoni was
a committed supporter of Palestinians and a strong critic of Israeli
policy.
“I remember that day as one of the happiest and most emotional of
my life,” he said in an interview posted on YouTube, in which he described
arriving in Gaza on a boat from the Free Gaza Movement.
He was among a
group of activists from Europe and the United States who reactivated the
pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement and had worked closely with
Gazan fishermen and farmers.
On Friday, his body was recovered in an
abandoned house in the Gaza Strip after his abduction by terrorists from the
jihadist Salafi group the day before.
“Yesterday when we received the
news, at the beginning we did not believe it. We thought it was just a joke, but
then we saw the video, we believed it,” said Silvia Todeschini, a fellow Italian
and activist.
“They brought us to the body and we said yes, it was him.
Vittorio was here for the Palestinian people, and they killed somebody who was
here for them.”
Reuters contributed to this report.