Another French jackpot hit by the terrorists?

And soon e-nough! the French government will ask all of France's journalists not to go into "terrorist territories" (I guess that means French banlieues too).

Palestinian gunmen abducted an Algerian Muslim journalist working for a French television station on Monday, his TV crew said, the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreigners in the Gaza Strip.

Mohamed Ouathi, a soundman for France 3 Television, was walking back to his hotel in Gaza City with his television crew when three unmasked men armed with rifles threatened him, pulled him into their vehicle and drove away.

The circumstances were unclear and no group claimed responsibility immediately.

"We tried to intervene, to resist, but they threatened us very aggressively and dragged off Mohamed," Gwenaelle Lenoir, one of the crew members, told France 3.

Contrary to past abductions of journalists in Gaza, a frequent scene of lawlessness between rival armed groups, Ouathi was not freed hours after the kidnapping, angering his TV station and France, which demanded his immediate release.

"This isn't the first time we've had people abducted in Gaza, but in general they are released pretty quickly," said Sylvain Lequesne, a staff representative.

Palestinian cabinet minister and security official Mohammad Dahlan called the kidnapping "an offence to the Palestinian people" and said the government would work to find the man.

Forces later deployed near the hotel where the television crew was staying to search for the kidnappers, he said.

Palestinian militants have kidnapped several foreigners in the past in a sign of growing chaos in Gaza, caused mainly by those opposed to reforms President Mahmoud Abbas has carried out in his Fatah group and those protesting against alleged corruption in his government.

Gaza gunmen abducted five foreign U.N. workers this month in two separate incidents but freed them hours later. Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli Arab CNN television producer in Gaza in 2004 and held him for a day.

As Balagan suggests, Reporters Without Borders and Weasel TV3 might as well soon complain about the good old days when the imperialist, savage Israeli army was keeping them safe so they could spread their propaganda. Some things never change.