GAZA, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for kidnapping two foreign teachers in northern Gaza on Wednesday.

    The group said in a statement that their act was aimed at calling for the release of Ahmed Sadat, leader of the group who is currently held in a Palestinian jail in the West Bank town of Jericho.

    Members of Wadi Haddad Group, linked to the PFLP have arrested a Dutch and an Australian, demanding the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and international community to work for the release of Sadat, said the statement.

    Sadat, 50, is accused of planning and sending PFLP members to assassinate the then Israeli Tourism Minister Rahbam Zeivi in 2001.Sadat is now imprisoned in Jericho under American and British guarding and observation.

    The kidnappers denounced the PNA's silence over the detention of Sadat. "This is our message first to the PNA and second to the American and Zionist enemy," the statement said.

    The PNA Interior Ministry condemned the kidnapping and called on the kidnapers to immediately release the hostages.

    Hindrich Tatchken, a Dutchman and the principal of the American International School in Gaza, and his deputy Brian Improjio, an Australian, were kidnapped by masked militants in the Nasser Street in Gaza City.

    The spokesman of the PNA ministry Tawfeek Abu Khousa urged the kidnappers to release the hostages, saying that the kidnapped foreign citizens were in Palestinian territories to offer help,utility and education to students.

    In a press statement sent to reporters, the ministry said that Palestinian security forces immediately started to search for the two foreigners and contacted different militant groups to figure out who kidnapped them and what they want.

    The ministry considered such acts humiliated the civilized image of the Palestinian people, stressing that the ministry will not ignore such crimes committed by outlawed people or group and vowing to give them due punishment.

    Witnesses said that four armed and masked militants stopped thecar of the two foreigners and bundled them into another car and took them to an unknown place.

    Meanwhile, school officials confirmed that both had been kidnapped and the school had informed the Dutch and the Australian embassies, adding that the two have always been showing solidarity and sympathy with the Palestinian people.

    Tatchken had repeatedly sent letters of protest to the Israeli army for the sonic-bomb and airstrike carried out over the Gaza Strip, which scares and panics Palestinian children.

    Palestinian militants have kidnapped foreigners on several occasions in the Gaza Strip over the past two years, using the captives to press the PNA for achieving their personal goals.  Enditem