Here’s a story that’s a multi-level layer cake of irony. A group of Palestinians angry at being fired from the security forces kidnapped three Italian “peace activists” in Gaza, to try to force officials to hire them back. You can’t make up this kind of stuff.

GAZA, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Palestinians angry at being sacked from the security forces kidnapped three Italian peace activists in the Gaza Strip this week to try to force officials to re-employ them, their peace group said on Wednesday.

The Grassroots International Protection for the Palestinian People said the three were kidnapped on September 16 and held overnight before being freed on Tuesday unharmed.

The umbrella group, which includes Palestinian and international non-governmental organisations, said armed men kidnapped the three Italians in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and held them in a house.

“They were not hurt while they were held, and their kidnappers told them that the kidnapping was an attempt to pressure a Palestinian security service to ensure their return to their jobs,” the statement said.

I’m sure the “peace activists” blamed it on the “Israeli occupation.”

Speaking of “occupation,” this Reuters story also contains the latest permutation of the standard Reuters anti-Israel ending paragraph, which now states as an unquestioned fact that the Palestinian stupidfada is an “uprising against Israeli occupation.”

The statement said the kidnapping did not have “political” considerations, an apparent reference to the almost two-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

When I last wrote about the Reuters boilerplate copy, they were still mentioning “stalled peace talks” as the cause for the “uprising.” Now they’ve even dropped that pretense. Combustible Boy has noticed this slow (d)evolution too.