Canadian aid worker Adam Budzanowski, who was released by his Palestinian captors in Gaza on Wednesday, insists he will not be dissuaded from staying in the region to resume his work.

Budzanowski, 57, of Toronto was one of 11 foreigners seized by Palestinians protesting an Israeli military raid on a West Bank prison Tuesday, all of whom were released within a day.

Budzanowski told CTV News that once it was clear he was Canadian, he was no longer concerned his captors would harm him.

"At first it was very rough but when they realized that I was not an American, I was a Canadian, slowly, slowly they changed," he said.

Security officials worked through the night to secure the release of Budzanowski and the other remaining hostages -- a South Korean journalist and two French citizens.

Palestinian security officials were seen escorting Budzanowski, who works for the aid organization JumpStart, along with the other freed hostages, into the headquarters of the Palestinian preventive security agency in Gaza City on Wednesday.

Despite his ordeal, Budzanowski says he has no immediate plans to leave Gaza.

"I appreciate all the help especially at this moment, but I'm not a child, I know what I'm doing. I feel safe," Budzanowski said.

A videotape purportedly showing Budzanowski, who has been in Gaza since December, emerged Tuesday.

Wearing a suit and tie and surrounded by masked armed men, he said he had been in the Gaza Strip to work on job-creation projects and educational work.

"I was detained in the morning out of the office by armed men who seemed to be very agitated and very aggressive and very well-armed," he said in the video.

"I was advised straight away that this action is not taken against me personally or against any other detainees."

Budzanowski has served on the Toronto grant review team of the Ontario Trillium Foundation and as a consultant with Homeland International Inc., a property management and development company operating in Toronto and Buffalo, N.Y.

He speaks English, Polish, Czech, Russian, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian.

Budzanowski holds a master's degree in Humanities at the University of Toronto and studied religious studies and foreign aid at the University of Toronto and at the State Institute of International Relations in Moscow.

"He's a strong believer in the work that we do," said Esther Michaels, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based aid organization JumpStart for which Budzanowski worked.

Palestinians stage strike

Meanwhile, angry Palestinians staged a strike Wednesday in protest at Israel's grab of Palestinian prisoners from the jail in the West Bank town of Jericho.

Tuesday's day-long siege came just two weeks before Israel's general election and was certain to boost acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's image as a tough-minded leader.

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, a member of Olmert's centrist Kadima Party, dismissed allegations by Palestinians and critics at home that the operation, which involved some 1,000 troops, was timed to win over hardline voters.

However, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who cut short a European tour, called the raid an "unforgivable crime" and "an insult to the Palestinian people" as he toured the demolished complex.

Abbas said he blamed the U.S. and Britain for the raid because American and British wardens, who were supervising the prisoners under a 2002 agreement, left their posts minutes before Israeli troops arrived.

"I'm giving the facts," Abbas told reporters Wednesday. "They (the monitors) left at 9:20 a.m., and the Israelis came in at 9:30 a.m. How can we explain that?"

British and American officials said they had complained repeatedly about security conditions at the prison and threatened in a letter last week to remove the monitors if things did not improve.

The siege resulted in the capture of militant leader Ahmed Saadat, whom Israeli's blame for the 2001 assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

In all, more than 300 Palestinians were detained, and about 100 have since been released, the Israeli military said.

Israeli officials said Wednesday they are determined to try Saadat and four other PLFP activists for the assassination of Zeevi but will first have to overcome some legal hurdles.

The four believed to be directly involved in the assassination were convicted in the past by a Palestinian court, and legal experts said they'd have to sort out first whether they can be tried again.

Zeevi, an ultra nationalist who advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from Israeli-controlled territory, was shot dead in the hallway of a Jerusalem hotel in October 2001, and the PFLP claimed responsibility at the time.