Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni (right), whose career began in the Bay Area, says he will probably go back to the Mideast despite being kidnapped for 13 days in Gaza. In an interview with John M. Higgins of Broadcasting & Cable online, the former KRON-TV producer makes these points:

• The kidnapping has caused all foreign journalists to withdraw from Gaza, Centanni said. He said he hopes the kidnapping will encourage the Palestinians to secure Gaza and make it safe for journalists to return and tell the story of the Palestinians.

• Centanni was asked about a tape released by his captors showing that he and Wiig had converted to Islam. “I have great respect for the Islamic faith and learned a lot about it during captivity. I won’t really have any comment one way or the other about the conversion. They gave us the Quran and a lot of other books, and told us things and I know more about it now than ever.”

• His photographer who was also taken hostage was Olaf Wiig, who is from New Zealand. At first, their captors didn’t know what New Zealand was. “He had to draw them a little map to show where it was.”

• Will he return? “I would go back. Maybe. But not too soon. This sort of scared me away for a little while. I love to work internationally, and I hope to do it quite a bit more in the future.”