Israeli army forces arrested 13 Palestinians from Gaza in September: Palestinian Prisoners Club

At least 13 Palestinians from the besieged Gaza Strip were arrested by the Israeli army forces in September, according to a Palestinian Prisoners Club. 

"Out of the total number of the detainees, 11 were arrested while they were trying to pass the eastern fence separating Gaza from Israel," the non-government Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoner Club (PPC) said in a press statement sent to The New Arab.

"The other two Palestinians were fishermen, and they were arrested during fishing in the Gaza Sea," the organisation added. 

Mohammed, a Gaza-based fisherman who preferred not to mention his real name, told TNA that he was arrested earlier in September while fishing in the northern part of the Gaza Sea. 

"My relatives and I were fishing over nine miles of the sea when the Israeli navy boat approached us and asked us to stop fishing without any reason," the 19-year-old recalled. 

"Even before implementing their orders, the naval forces opened their fire at our boat and damaged it, forcing us to swim towards their boat," he said. "Later, they threw my cousin into the sea and ordered him to swim towards the Gaza beach while they arrested me and my brother."

While Mohammed and his brother were on the Israeli boat, the naval forces covered their eyes with black cloth and tied their hands behind their backs while other soldiers beat them with rifle butts, he remarked to TNA. Then, the Israeli forces took him and his brother to the investigation unit and asked them about their work and if they were helping Hamas or any other armed Palestinian factions. 

Three days later, the Israeli army released Mohammed and his brother without bringing any charges against them. 

Luck was not on the side of Ahmed, a Gaza-based young man, who was arrested by the Israeli army in mid-September while trying to sneak through the fence separating Gaza and Israel. 

"The Israelis knew well that we are fishers who are working hard to keep our families afloat, but they deliberately violate us to force us to leave the sea forever," the fisherman said. 

Mohammed filed a complaint against the Israelis with human rights institutions operating in the Gaza Strip to prosecute the Israeli forces and bring them to justice someday. He urged them to file an official complaint with international human rights organisations.

Luck was not on the side of Ahmed, a Gaza-based young man arrested by the Israeli army in mid-September while trying to sneak through the fence separating Gaza and Israel. 

"I was shocked when I heard that the army arrested my son in the eastern fence," said Halima, Ahmed's mother, to TNA. "We still do not know the fate of my son." 

According to her, the Israeli authorities have not charged her son, who she said had tried to pass the eastern fence of Gaza to find a bitter chance and to work inside Israel. 

The grieving mother called on international human rights organisations to pressure Israel to release her son immediately.

The Israeli occupation detains 193 prisoners from the Gaza Strip in its prisons, the oldest of whom is prisoner Diya Zakaria Al-Faluji, who has been arrested since 1992, the PPC noted. 

The PPC pointed out that the occupation has deprived nearly half of the prisoners in the Strip of visits for more than five years.