GAZA CITY (AFP) - Two Italian Red Cross workers were abducted at gunpoint in the Gaza Strip, just hours after arriving from Jerusalem, in the latest foreigner abduction to blight the chaotic territory.

The two men were driving alone back to Gaza City from the southern town of Khan Yunis when they were stopped by gunmen, forced out of their vehicle at gunpoint and driven away, an International Red Cross spokesman said.

"Both of them were Italian Red Cross workers and both were Italian," said ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno, naming them as Claudio Moroni, 36, and Gianmarco Onorato, 63.

Palestinian security forces have mobilized to search for the abducted aid workers and set up checkpoints on roads throughout southern Gaza, Palestinian security sources said.

The two Italians had arrived in the Gaza Strip from Jerusalem only Tuesday morning, Schorno said, to work on a joint mission between the Italian Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society on a "psychological support project".

Masked gunmen forced the two foreigners out of their vehicle at a junction in Khan Yunis and into their own car, driving off to an unknown destination, a Palestinian security source said. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Schorno said they were travelling in a clearly marked Red Cross vehicle, adding it was not unusual for foreign Red Cross staff to travel alone.

He was unable to provide any other personal details about the two men and confirmed that no news had been heard from them since they were seized.

A spokesman for the Italian consulate in east Jerusalem said the Italian authorities were investigating.

Kidnappings of foreigners have increased in the impoverished and increasingly lawless Palestinian territory, which has been mired in an unprecedented financial and political crisis for months.

Most of the victims have been released unharmed in days.

Around 20 foreigners, including many journalists, have been taken hostage in more than a year by gunmen generally looking to secure the release of Palestinians detained by the Palestinian Authority.

An Italian journalist working for the Corriere Della Sera newspaper was abducted in the Gaza Strip on September 10 but freed safe and sound later the same day.

Last month, a Spanish aid worker and photographer were kidnapped by gunmen in two separate incidents in the Gaza Strip before also being released unhurt.

Most Gaza-based kidnappings end with the victims released unharmed within a few days, but last August two journalists for US television Fox News were held for 13 days by a previously unknown militant group, Holy Jihad Brigades.

Their abductors demanded the release of all Muslim prisoners held in US jails, the first time that Gaza kidnappers made demands of a foreign government rather than the Palestinian Authority.
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