Concern was mounting on Sunday night for the safety of the kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston after a group in Gaza issued a statement saying he had been killed.
It was impossible to verify the claim, which was made in Arabic and sent by email to Palestinian journalists in Gaza from a previously unknown group.
The BBC said it too had no independent verification of the claim but said it was ”deeply concerned”.
Johnston (44) was kidnapped five weeks ago on Monday as he drove home from his office in Gaza City. He was thought to have been seized by a criminal family in Gaza but the BBC has had no direct contact with the kidnappers.
On Sunday afternoon the group, which called itself the Palestinian Monotheism and Holy War Brigades, released a three-paragraph statement saying it had killed Johnston. It said a video of his death would be broadcast but several hours after the message there was no evidence of any video.
The group said it had been asking for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Although there are around 10 000 Palestinians in Israeli jails this was not an issue previously thought to have been connected to the kidnapping. Instead it was widely believed that, as in previous cases in Gaza, the kidnappers wanted money or weapons from the Palestinian Authority.
”We demanded all who care about the journalist, who was abducted by us, should release our prisoners from the prisons of the occupation,” the message said. ”The whole world made so much noise about this foreign journalist, while it took no action over our thousands of prisoners.”
The name of the group in Arabic, Kataib al-Tawhid w’al-Jihad Falasteen, has not been heard before in Gaza but it echoed a name used by one of the most influential militant groups in Iraq run by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US strike last June. His group, which at first called itself the Monotheism and Holy War Brigades, was behind many kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners in Iraq. It later changed its name to al-Qaeda in Iraq and apparently claimed allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
In a statement on Sunday night, the BBC said it had no evidence to support the claim. ”The BBC is aware of these reports,” the corporation said. ”We have no independent verification. We are deeply concerned about what we are hearing. We would stress at this stage it is rumour with no independent verification.”
Hani al-Qawasmi, the Palestinian Interior Minister, told reporters he too had no proof of the claim.”I have been in contact with all the security chiefs since I heard the information,” he said. ”There is no information to confirm the killing of the journalist Johnston.”
Last week the BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, was in Ramallah for a day of action to call for the journalist’s release and he was told by the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, that Johnston was safe and well. He said the Palestinian officials had ”credible evidence” to support their assessment.
Johnston, a widely-respected reporter, has been held longer than any other hostage in Gaza.
He lived in Gaza City for three years, the only foreign correspondent based there, and was due to have ended his assignment at the beginning of April. – Guardian Unlimited Â