By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
German broadcaster ARD says it has shut down its Gaza City office to protest the arrest of one of its cameramen.
Masked men affiliated with Gaza's ruling Hamas group arrested 42-year-old Sawah Abu Seif from his home on Friday during a roundup of alleged activists from the rival Fatah movement. Hamas blames Fatah for an explosion that day in Gaza City that killed five Hamas members and a 6-year-old girl.
ARD bureau chief Richard C. Schneier denies the cameraman is active in Fatah and says he works only as a journalist.
A note posted at the ARD office in Gaza City says in Arabic and English: "The office will stay closed until Sawah Abu Seif will have returned to his family and home safely."