From Haaretz Flash News:

Witnesses: Palestinian gunmen abduct three foreigners - American, Briton and Irish - in West Bank city of Nablus

Possibly International Solidarity Movement clowns?

UPDATE at 7/30/04 4:13:09 pm:

AP’s headline on this story is a masterpiece:

Palestinian Militants Abduct Activists. (Hat tip: Luigi.)

Palestinian Militants Abduct Activists…

UPDATE at 7/30/04 4:31:43 pm:

A few more details from Haaretz:

Palestinian gunmen abducted three foreign church volunteers - an American, a Briton and an Irishman - in the West Bank city of Nablus early on Saturday, Palestinian security sources said.

They said unidentified armed men took the three, who have been working on an academic project at a Nablus university, as they returned to a house where they have been living.

Several foreign women accompanying them were allowed to go free.

The officials said the hostages apparently were taken to the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. No reason for the abduction was immediately given.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, said the kidnappers could belong to a splinter group of Al Aqsa.