He
is expected to leave Gaza for Israel as soon as possible. According to
a Foreign Office advance plan, he will receive medical attention in
Jerusalem before decisions are made about when he will return home to
Britain.
Speaking to BBC News 24 after his release, Mr Johnston
said: "It's just the most fantastic thing to be free. It was an
appalling experience to be kidnapped for 16 weeks."
"It became almost hard to imagine normal life again ... Now it really is over and it is indescribably good to be out."
Mr
Johnston, the only western correspondent working full-time in Gaza,
went missing on March 12. His captors later declared themselves to be
the Army of Islam, an al-Qaida-inspired group with links to one of
Gaza's powerful clans. Concern grew last month when the group issued a
video of Mr Johnston in what appeared to be a vest packed with
explosives and threatened to kill the reporter if there was an attempt
to free him.
His release comes after Hamas security forces
surrounded a group of buildings in Gaza City yesterday, where he was
believed to have been held. Hamas had issued several ultimatums to his
captors, warning that force could be used to secure his freedom.
From
5.30am yesterday, members of the Hamas police, the Executive Force,
took over the rooftops of high rise apartment blocks that overlook the
stronghold of the Dogmush family in the Sabra district of Gaza City.
The activity was considered as part of a policy to increase pressure on
the kidnappers.
The forces closed off all streets in the area and
checked cars and individuals who wanted to leave the area. There was
sporadic shooting throughout the day and one passerby was shot dead in
crossfire.
The Hamas force has detained several members of the
Dogmush family at roadblocks while Dogmush gunmen abducted 10 students
of the Islamic University from their residence in the Sabra area.
The
Dogmush family is a large clan which has several groups, one of which,
under Mumtaz Dogmush, has been involved in several kidnappings,
including that of Mr Johnston. The Army of Islam was involved in the
abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit more than a year ago,
although it was sidelined soon afterwards.
As darkness fell last
night, dozens of Hamas gunmen in black masks moved closer to the
Dogmush compound, a mixture of apartment blocks and commercial premises.
The
breakthrough was said to have come after pressure from another militant
group, the Popular Resistance Committees, who visited the Mumtaz
Dogmush to help negotiate a final agreement.
Since Hamas has
taken control of Gaza, its leaders have repeated their intention to
free Mr Johnston, to demonstrate that they can provide better security
in Gaza than the forces of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah which
they routed in street battles two weeks ago.
The leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said the freeing of Mr Johnston showed his movement had brought order to the Gaza Strip.
"We
have been able to close this chapter which has harmed the image of our
people greatly. The efforts by Hamas have produced the freedom of Alan
Johnston," Mr Meshaal told the Reuters agency by telephone from Syria.
Simon
Wilson, the bureau chief of the BBC, said he believed that the buildup
of forces was a tactic to increase pressure on the kidnappers rather
than a prelude to a rescue attempt. "We have repeatedly said that we do
not want military action to free Alan," he said.
At a press
conference in Gaza City earlier, Mr Haniyeh said that Hamas hoped to
end Mr Johnston's captivity peacefully but retained other options.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, accused Mr Johnston's captors of
smearing the Palestinian people's reputation.
In London, no
immediate comment was available from the Foreign Office. More than a
dozen journalists and foreign aid workers have been kidnapped in Gaza
in recent months, but Mr Johnston was held longer than others.
Statemenet from Alan himself:
I am hugely grateful to all the people - an amazing
number of people that worked on the Palestinian side, the British
government, the BBC from top to bottom, and a huge amount of support
from BBC listeners and viewers.
I had a radio almost throughout, and was able to follow
all the extraordinary level of support and interest in my case, and it
was a huge psychological boost.
I am immensely grateful. It's just the most fantastic thing to be free.
It was an appalling experience as you can imagine - 16
weeks kidnapped, sometimes quite terrifying, and frightening always
because I didn't know how it was going end...
It was like being buried alive really, removed from the world and occasionally terrifying...
It became almost hard to imagine normal life again.
I literally dreamt many times of being free, and always
woke up back in that room. And now it really is over, and it really is
indescribably good.
Last night, when they took me downstairs and said you're
going to Britain, they had actually said that once before when they
moved me to another prison, so I was really fighting the desire to
believe that it was all about to end.
And even when I was in the car, I thought at first 'They
are moving me again', and I thought maybe they're handing me on to new
kidnappers, but then as we got deeper and deeper into Gaza City, I
really began at last to believe that maybe we were finishing it.
When they let me out of the car, there were gunmen
around and so on and I thought, 'No, no these are more kidnappers', but
then I saw [BBC reporter] Fayed Abu Shammala who I'd worked with for
three years and the most fantastic moment, and I really only then, only
then believed it was over.
'Told what to say'
[The captors] were often rude and unpleasant, as you can imagine.
They did threaten my life, really, a number of times in various ways.
There was one 24-hour period when they seemed to get
very angry with the negotiation process, and they chained me up by my
hands and ankles. But that only lasted 24 hours.
You know, there were things that I said in [in a video
posted by his captors on the internet on 1 June] about the situation in
Gaza which were factually true.
There were other things I said which were factually not
correct, and absolutely all of it lacked any of the kind of context
that would make it any kind of truth.
But they weren't interested in any kind of truth, they
were interested in their world view being put over, and my feeling was
that nobody takes those kind of videos seriously.
And again, with the video involving the explosive
jacket, I was told what to say there. You really have very little
choice in those situations. I think it is, again, part of the wider
nightmare of what you go through in that situation...
I think I'm OK. It was an extraordinary level of stress
and psychological pressure for a long, long time, and obviously
difficult to keep your mind in the right place, a constant battle.
But I do feel that I've probably got through it as well
as I could've, I probably won't know for a while but I feel as well as
I could I think...
'Dangerous group'
I was in Gaza for three years, and I know very well what
Palestinian culture is, and the extraordinary warmth and hospitality -
especially of Gaza.
I knew that the handful of people that kidnapped me were a complete aberration - something completely other.
My memories of Gaza will be very much of the best kind, despite what happened to me.
It's true that the kidnappings - I covered 27 of them here, almost all of them were over in about 12 days.
I knew that there was one very dangerous group. I knew
about them, and I was always afraid of them. They struck first last
August, and I was worried that they might get me one day, and they
indeed did.
The kidnappers seemed very comfortable and very secure
in their operation - until a couple of weeks ago when it became clear
that Hamas would be in charge of the security situation on their own
here, and after that the kidnappers were much more nervous.
It was appalling really... not to be able to report on
the extraordinary turmoil, the events that I could hear going on, the
fighting in the streets around the hideout, for days on end and I just
knew the scale of things that were happening.
It's the biggest story since I've been in Gaza, but I couldn't utter a word.
After 16 weeks in solitary confinement, Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held
hostage in the Gaza Strip since March, has been released. Watching him now in the press conference, it's hard to imagine the kind of wise soul it takes to survive such an ordeal and be so articulate and honourable in the aftermath.
I literally dreamt many times of being free, and always woke up back in that room
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