GAZA (Reuters) - Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held hostage in Gaza, was freed early on Wednesday after a late-night deal between the ruling Hamas Islamists and the al Qaeda-inspired clan group that kidnapped him in March.

“It is just the most fantastic thing to be free. It was an appalling experience,” he told the British public broadcaster from the home of local Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after his 114-day ordeal at the hands of the shadowy Army of Islam.

Haniyeh, whose movement routed the forces of the secular, Western-backed Palestinian president last month to seize full control of the enclave, said the outcome “confirms (Hamas) is serious in imposing security and stability and maintaining law and order in this very dear part of our homeland.”

Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’s overall leader in exile, hailed the success and told Reuters it contrasted with “anarchy” that prevailed when the Fatah faction of West Bank-based President Mahmoud Abbas was operating in the Gaza Strip.

Johnston, the only Western correspondent based full-time in the troubled Gaza Strip, said he sensed his captors felt new pressure once Hamas seized control in fighting three weeks ago.

Negotiators, who were backed up by Hamas fighters cordoning off the Gaza City stronghold of the kidnappers, said the final deal was clinched by a senior Muslim cleric issuing a fatwa, or religious edict, for Johnston’s release.

No ransom was paid nor other conditions attached. The group had previously demanded Britain and other states free prisoners.

“I dreamt many times of being free and always woke up back in that room. Now it really is over and it is indescribably good to be out,” said Johnston, a Scot who turned 45 in captivity.

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Describing it as the worst 16 weeks of his life and “like being buried alive” with “dangerous and unpredictable” captors, he later told a news conference with Haniyeh: “It’s almost hard to believe that I’m not going to wake up in that room.”

He said he had twice fallen sick and was once chained for 24 hours but only in the last half hour did they “hit me a bit.”

Johnston said he was kept in a shuttered room for the last 3 months of his captivity and could not see the sun.

He feared for his life immediately after being seized on March 12, as well as when he was filmed wearing an explosive vest by captors who warned Hamas forces not to try to free him.

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British diplomats, whose government does not recognize Hamas authority in Gaza, arrived from Jerusalem and Johnston crossed the border into Israel shortly before 8 a.m. (0500 GMT).

Britain, Israel and other international powers recognize Abbas’s new emergency government in the West Bank as the legitimate authority for the Palestinians. But Hamas’s Haniyeh refuses to accept his dismissal last month as prime minister.

Johnston, smiling and looking drawn but well, was embraced by BBC colleagues after he arrived by car at Haniyeh’s home amid a scrum of well-wishers and security men. After their joint news conference, Haniyeh draped Johnston in the Palestinian flag.

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He later offer the reporter a traditional Arab breakfast.

Johnston, who had followed events by radio, thanked people round the world and colleagues for support during his ordeal.

The BBC said in a statement it was “extremely relieved.” Johnston’s family in Scotland said they were “overjoyed.”

Referring to Fatah, Meshaal said of Johnston’s release: “It showed the difference between the era in which a group used to encourage and commit security anarchy and chaos and the current situation in which Hamas is seeking to stabilize security.”

The Palestinian ambassador to London, who represents the government Abbas set up last month after dismissing Haniyeh’s administration, said Hamas wanted to “capitalize” on the deal. But he said: “The credit goes to the Palestinian people.”