Italian activist and journalist kidnapped in Gaza is dead

Police investigating the case learned where 36-year-old Vittorio Arrigoni was being held and went to the location, where they found the body, the statement said.

An autopsy revealed that he had been killed hours before police entered the location, it said.

Medical sources said his body was taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

The grisly outcome came hours after a video was posted on YouTube showing a man identified by his colleagues as Arrigoni. A black blindfold covered his eyes; his right cheek appeared red as though it had been hit; his hands appeared to be bound behind his back. A hand belonging to someone outside of the view of the lens appeared to be grasping his hair on the back and pointing the captive's head toward the camera.

Arabic writing scrolled over the video threatened that Arrigoni would be killed if Hesham al-Saeedni, who has been held for nearly a year by Hamas, were not released within 30 hours of 11 a.m. Thursday. Al-Saeedni is the leader of a group that may have been inspired by al Qaeda, said Alfredo Tradardi, the Italy coordinator for the International Solidarity Movement, where Arrigoni was a volunteer.

Arrigoni had been active in the Palestinian cause for nearly a decade, and had been allied with the International Solidarity Movement for more than two years, "monitoring human rights violations by Israel, supporting the Palestinian popular resistance against the Israeli occupation and disseminating information about the situation in Gaza to his home country of Italy," the non-governmental organization said in a written statement; Kazinform cites CNN.

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