Two UN workers kidnapped in Gaza by gunmen Friday were freed several hours later, security sources said.

The two hostages, an Australian woman and a Palestinian colleague working for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), were forced into a vehicle outside an up market hotel on Gaza's Mediterranean beach front by masked gunmen Friday afternoon, witnesses said.

Several hours later, they were freed after Palestinian Interior Minister Nasr Youssef's call for an immediate release.

Youssef gave his instructions to security authorities that strict and preventive measures would be taken against anyone proved to be involved in the kidnap.

Following the interior condemnation, the pair were released and taken by officials to the office of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, said the sources, adding they left the building shortly afterward in a Palestinian security car, accompanied by an Australian diplomatic vehicle.

Relatives of Jihad Abed, a colonel in the Palestinian police intelligence service who has been kidnapped since Thursday, have claimed responsibility for the abduction of the UN workers.

They said they did so because they believed that Abed's kidnapping was ordered by members of the security forces, while the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) "has not done anything to try and release our Jihad."

The PNA is battling against increasing lawlessness in the occupied territories. Earlier this month, two engineers from Austria and Britain were also kidnapped in Gaza and released unharmed later.

Source: Xinhua