Dutchman Hendrik Taatgen and his Australian assistant Brian Ambrosio were immediately taken to the Gaza City headquarters of the Palestinian Authority after being freed by kidnappers who had apparently assumed that they were American.
"They were surprised when they found [out] who we are. They were looking I think, they were aiming for Americans, so they were disappointed," Taatgen told reporters.
Ambrosio said that they had been assured of their safety throughout their brief time in captivity.
"We were treated very well," said the Australian. "We were told that we would not be hurt and that this is not against us".
Ambrosio told ABC radio that he would like to see a move "away from the violence and guns".
"We were well looked after," he told the radio station, adding, "It was still quite traumatic. We told the people that we were here to help Gaza and Palestine, and that's why we're here, and at no time did they indicate that they would harm us."
The pair had been abducted by gunmen earlier in the day when they were forced from their car as they approached the school in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip and bundled into another vehicle.
An offshoot of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the kidnapping ahead of the pair's release, saying that it was to protest against the detention of the PFLP's leader Ahmed Sadat.
Sadat is being held under American-British supervision in a prison in the West Bank town of Jericho for the 2001 assassination of Israel's tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi.
The authenticity of the statement from the Wadie Haddad group could not be immediately verified and a spokesman for the PFLP said that the group "has nothing to do with this statement and would not approve of such an act".
The school, which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea, is mostly staffed by foreigners and partly funded by the US government.
When news of the kidnappings emerged, the school was closed for the day and pupils turned away at the gates.
The abductions are the latest in a string of kidnappings in the Gaza Strip where gunmen operating in the name of "resistance" against Israel frequently operate beyond the law.
More than 10 foreign journalists and aid workers have been kidnapped this year alone, although all were released unharmed.
Haidar Abdel Shafi, head of the Palestinian Red Crescent, told reporters at the scene of the kidnapping that it would scare foreigners away.
"We need to raise our voice to strongly condemn this criminal act. We need to think how we can resist these criminals because there is no reason for this kind of criminal act. No Palestinian faction can justify this act.
"These kidnappings threatens the continued presence of foreigners on our land."
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has made tackling lawlessness one of his top priorities but has not managed to bring to heel armed factions, who often operate above the law.
In August he issued specific orders to the security services to ensure the safety and protection of all foreigners in the Palestinian territories.
But three days later a French television soundman was abducted in Gaza City. He was released unharmed on August 22.
The United Nations had withdrawn its entire non-essential foreign staff earlier in the summer after a number of its employees were abducted, although all were subsequently released unharmed.
Abbas has been trying to persuade factions such as the Islamist movement Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to lay down their weapons in the aftermath of Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip over the summer.
But the militants have vowed to retain their guns until the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all Palestinian territory.
In a sign of growing public unrest over the security situation, some 2,000 Palestinians demonstrated outside the Gaza City branch of the Palestinian parliament on Tuesday to demand an end to the lawlessness.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
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