Dozens of armed gunmen of the PLO's Fatah A-Aqsa Brigades reportedly raided an apartment in which Phillips was being held, winning his release.
Various factions within the Palestinian Authority, as well as splinter groups within major terror groups, have in the past kidnapped Americans. The abductions are often a means of extracting demands from ruling PA factions that are seeking to please the American administration.
Phillips, who is of Italian descent, had been volunteering in Shechem's Balata slums, teaching English as part of Project Hope, an organization that brings Western volunteers to the region to teach English, French, Art and Drama. Though the group's web site does not specify whether Jews can join the program, at least one of the participants speaks about Arab families that "reject a friend from their house when she reveals she is a (non Zionist) Jew."
Phillips had also been working for the United Nations, volunteering in a UNRWA-run school in the Askar slums for four months.
Phillip's captors publicly demanded that Israel release prisoners and cease aerial counter-terror assaults in Gaza in order to obtain his release. The kidnappers said they were part of the Ansar A-Sunna terror group, which is active in Iraq and closely tied to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
The kidnapping was noticed after copies of Philips' passport and student ID card were faxed to the Reuters news agency. The group issued additional demands via statements by masked men to reporters in Gaza. They said the overall purpose of the abduction was to "confront the American war on Islam."
After his release, Phillips held a press conference alongside Shechem's notorious terror-supporting mayor Ghassan Shakaa.
PA official Jamal Tirawi, speaking on behalf of PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), apologized to Phillips, blaming the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committee for the kidnapping and adding that Abu Mazen would not permit the PA to become another Afghanistan.
Four months ago, an American Jewish student visiting Nablus was released unharmed a day after he was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. In August, two American newsmen were kidnapped and held in Gaza for over two weeks.