Israel arrests Gaza-based UN official

Israel detained a UN official based in the besieged Gaza Strip on 12 July but neither they nor the UN have released information on the arrest, Palestinian rights groups have said.

According to local NGO Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Hamdan Muhammad Hassan Timraz, the assistant regional director for the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) in the Gaza Strip, was detained at Israel’s Erez crossing.

Timraz, 61, had obtained a permit to travel to Jerusalem to meet with the general manager of UNDSS’ Jerusalem office, according to Al-Mezan’s statement, which highlighted that Timraz regularly travelled outside of Gaza for work.

Timraz’s wife, Niemeh Salih Timraz, 54, told the NGO that the family lost contact with him after he arrived at Erez. It wasn’t until Thursday that Israeli security services telephoned Timraz’s 24-year-old son Abd Al-Hadi and notified him that his father was under arrest.

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An Israeli security source confirmed the arrest to an Israeli journalist who said the news was under gag order in Israel.

Israel has launched a series of arrest campaigns against charity officials over the past few years, detaining them as they travel through the Erez crossing on official business. The defendants are then charged with being members of an outlawed organisation, Hamas, or funding its activity. Employees of UNRWA, UNDP, World Vision, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) and Save the Children have all been targeted in a campaign which international rights groups have said is an effort to quash the work of humanitarian agencies in the Gaza.

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