Gaza abductors free Israeli-Arab producer of CNN

Palestinian gunmen freed an Israeli-Arab producer for CNN television unharmed on Tuesday a day after kidnapping him in the Gaza Strip. Riad Ali said his captors told him they were members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. Spokesmen for the Brigades denied involvement.

‘‘Of course I do not know if they were really from Al-Aqsa or not,’’ Ali said of the abductors who snatched him from a CNN car they stopped in Gaza City on Monday. ‘‘No accusation was addressed to me. They questioned me about my background as a member of (Israel’s minority) Druse community. After they saw I had nothing to do with claims or concerns they had, they released me,’’ he said.