British reporter Alan Johnston, looking pale and tired, was released Wednesday after nearly four months in captivity in the Gaza Strip, saying it was “fantastic” to be free after an “appalling” ordeal.
The British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent described his time in captivity as “occasionally quite terrifying” in a telephone interview with the BBC. “It was an appalling experience,” he said, speaking from the home of deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza.

“It is indescribably good to be out,” he said in a steady and composed voice. “It is just the most fantastic thing to be free,” he added.

Johnston said he felt as well as could have been expected.

“I didn't know where it was going to end,” he said, adding that he had endured “an extraordinary level of stress” and psychological pressure. “I probably got out if it as well as I could have.”

Johnston was kidnapped on a Gaza City street on March 12 by the shadowy, little-known Army of Islam, and held far longer than any other foreign reporter in Gaza.

Hamas had demanded Johnston's freedom since it violently seized control of Gaza last month, in an apparent bid to curry favor with the West. On Tuesday, Hamas gunmen took positions around Army of Islam's stronghold, stepping up the pressure to secure his release.

It was not immediately clear why Johnston's captors chose to release him at this time or under what specific terms he was freed, but Hamas said there would be no crackdown on the Army of Islam.

Johnston was taken after his release to Haniyeh's home in Gaza City's Shati refugee camp. Before entering, he told an Associated Press reporter, “I'm OK, really, I'm OK.”

Later, he told the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera satellite news network by phone that he was in good health despite the “immense” psychological pressure, and expressed special gratitude to Hamas and Haniyeh.

Asked if he would return to Gaza, which he had covered for three years, Johnston replied, “After many months of kidnapping, I think I need a break.”

Simon Wilson, the BBC's bureau chief in Jerusalem, told the BBC World news program that he had spoken to Johnston and he sounded “amazingly composed.”

“He asked me to pass onto everybody a big thank you and a litte bit of time to get used to things,” Wilson said. “He sounded tired and he just wanted to thank everybody.

“We are absolutely thrilled and delighted,” he added.

The BBC also reported Johnston had spoken to his father since his release. A BBC spokesman in London had no details of the terms of the reporter's release.

The British consul-general in Jerusalem, Richard Makepeace, spoke to Johnston by telephone, a British consulate official said, without elaborating. The official was not authorized to speak to the press and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman, said Johnston's captors had responded positively to recent efforts by tribal and religious leaders to end Johnston's ordeal. Taha said the Army of Islam would not be dismantled or disarmed in return for freeing the reporter.

Army of Islam spokesman Abu Khatab al-Maqdisi, who had been arrested by Hamas as a potentially valuable bargaining chip earlier this week, said his faction would work together with Hamas, a onetime ally.

A senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, denied that Hamas acted in an effort to improve its relations with the West, which is boycotting the Islamic group over its violently anti-Israel ideology.

“We didn't work to receive favors from the British government. We did this because of humanitarian concern, and to achieve a government aim to extend security to all without fear,” Zahar said.

On Tuesday, members of Hamas' 6,000-person militia moved onto rooftops of high-rise buildings and deployed gunmen in streets of the Gaza City neighborhood inhabited by the Doghmush clan, the large, heavily armed family that leads the Army of Islam.

“The clocks have begun ticking toward the release of Alan Johnston,” said Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad. “The operation of the interior ministry Executive Forces has started, and they are tightening the siege on the people involved in his kidnap.”

Late Tuesday, the Doghmush clan released nine students loyal to Hamas that they kidnapped earlier in the week. Hamas officials and mediators said the release was meant to pave the way for Johnston's release.

Then four Army of Islam members were freed by Hamas, said Abu Mujahid from the Popular Resistance Committees, the militant group handling the negotiations. The four included an Army of Islam spokesman whose arrest Monday was seen as an effort to gain a potentially valuable bargaining chip.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Johnston's captors of smearing the Palestinian people's reputation and of seeking “to prove to the world that we are a group of militias that fight each other to gain personal ends.”

The Army of Islam, whose formerly close relations with Hamas had soured, had demanded that Britain first release a radical Islamic cleric with ties to al Qaeda. It also had threatened to kill Johnston if Hamas tried to free him by force.

Last week, the Army of Islam posted a video message from Johnston on a militant Web site in which he appeared to be wearing an explosives belt that he said his captors would detonate if there were an attempt to free him.

The same group was involved in the capture of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was seized more than a year ago in a raid on an Israeli army post near Gaza.