Judicial Playa wrote:
Sad story all around.

But would it be possible that the Palestinians they themselves mistook him for being Israeli and/or Jewish?

Reason I ask is... having been to Israel (Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, etc) numerous times, both on business and on pleasure trips, one way the "locals" (Palestinians and Israelis) can tell foreigners is by the obvious giveaways --- ie. accent, movement, lack of knowledge about domestic surroundings, etc. I think it could be possible that given his "Eurocentric" background, he might have been mistaken for a European Jew or an American Israeli or something of the like.

Either way. there's no justification for senseless killings no matter which side initiates, provokes or does it.

Booyaka
Not possible.  The man was held captive for a while, and his captors would have gotten the chance to know him. The Palestinians would be able to tell the difference between someone speaking Hebrew/Arabic with an Israeli accent and Italian.  Hebrew and Arabic are very similar languages and the Palestinians are exposed to Hebrew regularly.  Also, the Gaza Strip is not a huge place.  Vale Vittoriohad a very high profile and it's likely that just about everyone would have known who he was. 

They knew exactly who he was.  Originally, I guessed the motive was ransom.  When things got a little crazy, they decided to "dispose of the evidence".  However, it looks like the perpetrators were an islamic group rival to Hamas who considers Hamas too moderate and wanted Hamas to free it's own imprisoned members.  JP, back to your question, I don't see how kidnapping an Israeli would encourage Hamas to release a member of a rival islamist group.

Ex-Buzzer: people have gone even further with this one.  Apparently a Palestinian could never have done such a thing, and this is a Mossad plot after all:

http://www.allvoices.com/...l-shifa-hospital-in-gaza

Edit:

http://www.nytimes.com/20...aza.html?_r=1&src=mv

His captors described him as "Victor, an Italian journalist"


FREE THE LB4!!
Edited 1 time by APKeaton Apr 16 11 8:34 PM.