The Peruvian foreign minister on Wednesday blamed a Hamas splinter group for the abduction of AFP photographer Jaime Razuri in the Gaza Strip, adding that the hostage was "in good health."
Peruvian-born Razuri, 50, was kidnapped on Monday at gunpoint at the entrance of AFP offices in Gaza City as he was returning from an assignment with a translator and a driver.
"We know he was kidnapped by a dissident group of the Hamas movement and the information we have is that he is in good health," Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde told reporters following a Cabinet meeting.
PHOTO: AP
Until the announcement, nothing had been said about Razuri's kidnappers or their motives.
AFP said that it had no information on the kidnappers and had not received a ransom note so far.
Garcia Belaunde, who also confirmed sending his deputy foreign minister, Gonzalo Gutierrez, to the Gaza Strip to seek Razuri's liberation, did not say where his information had come from.
"We're dealing with several friendly governments in the region to help us secure his release," Peru's top diplomat said.
Gutierrez will meet in the Gaza Strip with Palestinian Authority, AFP and French government officials to coordinate efforts to secure Razuri's release, the foreign ministry said.
A spokesman for the the Palestinian General Delegation in Lima, Walid Abdel Rahim, said that the Gaza authorities were determined to secure Razuri's immediate release.
"I hope to give his family the news of the release even if it comes in the predawn hours. That's our desire because we're completely immersed in trying to get [Razuri] out safe and sound," Rahim said.
A group of Razuri's friends and relatives met outside the Palestinian delegation calling for the photographer's release.
The hostage's mother, Delia Razuri, called on the Peruvian government and Palestinian authorities to do their utmost to get her son back home safe and sound.
She also urged newspaper guilds to organize peaceful demonstrations outside the delegation to bring additional pressure for her son's release.
The gathering followed a candlelight vigil late on Tuesday by a group of 100 well-wishers at Lima's historic downtown cathedral.
The hostage's mother and his brother Carlos told reporters at the cathedral that they were confident the photographer would be released unharmed.
"I'm concerned, but I have faith that he will be liberated soon," said Delia Razuri.
"I'm comforted by the solidarity shown by his colleagues," she told reporters.
Garcia Belaunde said he had telephoned Razuri's mother to tell her that his government was doing "everything possible" to help find her son.
Separately, a group representing foreign reporters in Peru expressed its "most energetic condemnation" of the abduction, and urged the Palestinian Authority to "persist in its efforts" to find the kidnapped photographer.
Around 20 foreigners, including several journalists, have been kidnapped in more than a year in the volatile Gaza Strip.
In every case, the hostages were released soon after being abducted.
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