Steve and Olaf’s freedom came after “a complex deal was hammered out between the kidnappers and the Hamas-led government,” Time Magazine reports. The two FNCers were “likely the victims of a vicious feud between various Palestinian militias.”

The kidnappers “were enraged with fellow Hamas militants because they too had joined in the daring capture on June 25th of Corp. Shalit, in which Palestinian gunmen tunneled under a wall and attacked an Israeli army post.” But sources say “the militant groups fell out after Hamas’ military wing took control of Shalit and elbowed the other co-conspirators aside. In revenge, these militants, who belong to a splinter group of the late Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, struck back by seizing the two journalists, these sources said…”