Gaza militants release British hostages

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A British aid worker and her parents were whisked out of Gaza early Saturday after being released by Palestinian gunmen who abducted them two days earlier.

Elsewhere, dozens of armed men demanding jobs briefly seized several government offices in a central Gaza town, underscoring the spiraling chaos that has plagued the coastal strip since Israel's pullout.

The three British hostages -- aid worker Kate Burton, 25, and her parents, Hugh and Helen -- were released late Friday and driven to Jerusalem in armored cars early Saturday.

In a statement, the Burtons said they were treated "extremely well" during their ordeal. They asked to be "left in peace to recover with close friends and relatives."

The Burtons were seized Wednesday in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, the latest in a rash of abductions of foreigners by Palestinian gunmen, many with ties to the ruling Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Kate Burton told British Broadcasting Corp. that she and her parents were moved three times during their abduction and that the kidnappers remained masked the entire time.

In Saturday's violence, dozens of gunmen briefly seized several government offices in the central Gaza town of Deir el Balah, demanding jobs. The armed men fired in the air, burned tires and blocked the main road of the town during the takeover.

Several gunmen, including several off-duty police officers, also threw up a roadblock near the Egypt-Gaza border to pressure officials to arrest and execute those responsible for the death of a Palestinian policeman during a family feud Thursday.

Julio De La Guardia, a spokesman for the European monitors stationed at the Rafah border crossing as part of the Israeli-Palestinian agreement to open the border last month, said travel was unaffected by the roadblock Saturday.

The slain policeman's colleagues had stormed the Rafah crossing Friday, forcing European monitors to flee and the crossing to be closed for several hours.