By Megan Ma

The Bay Area family members of Fox News reporter Steve Centanni, kidnapped Aug. 14 in Gaza City, are still waiting anxiously to hear word from his abductors.

The 60-year-old veteran reporter graduated from Los Altos High School in 1964 and worked for local radio stations, KRON-TV and CNN, before joining Fox News. He graduated from San Francisco State University with a bachelor’s degree in television and radio.

Ken Centanni of San Jose said his brother is an adventurous person who enjoys the international news scene. He had passed up opportunities to report from Iraq and Afghanistan, however, believing the situation in those places was too volatile.

“I doubt very seriously that he ever thought it would be him,” Ken Centanni said. “But he knew it does happen.”

Centanni and his cameraman, Olaf Wiig of New Zealand, were parked near the headquarters of the Palestinian security services when two trucks filled with masked gunmen boxed them in, according to a Fox News employee.

The gunmen pulled the two out of their vehicle, clearly marked “TV,” and drove them away, according to the employee.

Abductors demanding jobs from the Palestinian Authority or the release of political prisoners held in Palestinian jails have kidnapped several foreigners in Gaza in recent months. All those kidnapped were released

within hours of their abduction without harm, according to news sources.

In Centanni’s case, three major military groups in Gaza deny any connection with the abduction. No demands have been made as of Town Crier press time.

For now, the Centanni

family can only wait for information from the Fox News investigation team, which is leading a rigorous search effort, Ken Centanni said.

“The progress is going well. I don’t think they’ll let this thing go,” he said. “The hardest thing for us is that there’s absolutely nothing you can do here.”

The Centanni family is encouraged that the FBI, Palestinian and Israeli leaders are working together for his brother’s release, he said.