A diplomatic source told Ma'an Thursday night that four Al-Jazeera journalists captured in Libya on 7 March were released this afternoon, following intervention from President Mahmoud Abbas.

The journalists will leave the Libyan city of Tripoli for Tunis in the coming hours, the official said, adding the journalists had met with the Palestinian ambassadors to Mauritania and Tunis at Libya's Ministry of the Interior offices.

The group -- correspondents Ahmad Val Wald-Eddin and Lutfi Al-Massoudi and cameramen Ammar Al-Hamdan and Ammar Al-Tallou from Britain -- was captured by forces loyal to Libyan leader Mommar Gadhafi near the city of Zantan.

Al-Hamdan is a Palestinian who holds Norwegian citizenship.

According to the Oslo-based English news site The Foreigner, Samir Shatera at the Al-Jazeera’s Oslo office said on Thursday "we know he’s [Al-Hamdan] alive and out of jail, and are working to get him out of Libya."

Officials at Al-Jazeera's office in Doha did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Abbas is abroad on a diplomatic tour of Russia and Eastern Europe.