LONDON: The family and colleagues of Alan Johnston, a BBC reporter kidnapped 
by Islamists in Gaza, urged his captors yesterday not to harm him after he 
appeared in a video wearing what he said was an explosives belt. 
 
 
   BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston is seen wearing what he 
 said was as an explosive belt in this image taken from a June 24, 2007 
 video released by Jaish al-Islam. Johnston appeared in the video posted on 
 the Internet on Sunday wearing what he said was as an explosive belt which 
 he said his captors will detonate if force was used to free him.  
 [Reuters]
   | 
Johnston's father said he and his 
family were "most concerned and distressed" about the video, in which the 
45-year-old Briton said his kidnappers had threatened to blow up the belt of 
explosives if force was used to free him. 
The BBC also said it was "very distressing" to see Johnston "being threatened 
in this way". 
"Our thoughts, of course, are with Alan in his present predicament. We 
earnestly request his abductors to release Alan unharmed in any way," Johnston's 
father said in a statement. 
In the one-minute-long video posted by the Army of Islam on a website used by 
militants, Johnston looked tired but unharmed and appealed to the Hamas movement 
and the British government "not to resort to tactics of force in an effort to 
end this". 
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in Gaza, where the movement took control 
in a civil war more than a week ago, that contacts were under way with 
Johnston's captors to gain his release through peaceful means. 
"We will work in every way to free Alan Johnston without putting his life at 
risk," Barhoum said. "Preserving Alan's life and freedom is better than shedding 
blood and maybe that will cost us more time." 
Johnston appeared in the video wearing a white and blue belt around his torso 
with black shoulder straps over a dark red sweater in the undated video filmed 
against a black background. 
Johnston's captors say they want Britain to free Muslim prisoners, 
particularly Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, in exchange for the reporter's release. 
Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip say they are pressing the kidnappers to 
free Johnston, but Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Hamas-led 
government sacked by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, said on 
Sunday his group had not used force to try to free Johnston at the request of 
the British government, fearing he might be harmed in the process. 
"We ask those holding Alan to avoid him being harmed by releasing him 
immediately," the BBC said in a statement. 
Johnston was abducted in Gaza on March 12 and is believed to be being held by 
the Army of Islam.