Free Republic

GAZA (Reuters) - Gunmen abducted two Italians working for the International Committee of the Red Cross in southern Gaza on Tuesday, the latest in a spate of kidnappings of foreigners in the Palestinian coastal strip. Police said the aid workers were in a car on their way to the town of Khan Younis when they were intercepted by gunmen. "They were taken out of their vehicle and put into another car which then sped away," said one police officer at the scene. An ICRC spokesman in Jerusalem, Simon Schorno, identified the abducted men as Claudio Moroni and Gianmarco Onorato. He...

In a special session Sunday night, the political-security cabinet unanimously agreed that the Israel Defense Forces is to begin preparing for military steps aimed at securing the release of a soldier abducted in a pre-dawn attack that killed two other soldiers.During the cabinet meeting, ministers Shimon Peres, Eli Yishai and Meir Sheetrit urged the IDF to respond with restraint to the attack. However, Olmert responded, "The age of restraint has come to an end... We will respond forcefully, with an operation that will last more than a day or two."The Palestinian militants attacked an IDF post near the Gaza border,...