Mohammad el Sharif was reportedly taken at a checkpoint while trying to move his family to a ‘safer’ part of Gaza [GETTY]
A child psychotherapist working for a Scottish charity in Gaza has reportedly disappeared after being abducted by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in Gaza City.
Mohammad al-Sharif and his family were moving to a “safer” area towards the west of the city when they were stopped by Israeli forces at a checkpoint, The National reported.
Al-Sharif became separated from his family when Israeli forces split up the men from the women and children. Al-Sharif’s wife Alaa and three children are now homeless and have no information on his whereabouts.
Jane Salmonson, the director of Firefly International, which supports children affected by war, told The National that she has been told al-Sharif is one of 20,000 men who have disappeared with no trace.
“We are desperately worried about him as we think he has been detained and interrogated,” Salmonson told the publication.
Al-Sharif is the director of a children’s mental health clinic in Gaza that was bombed by Israel.
He maintained contact with the staff at Firefly despite being displaced several times.
Due to Israeli attacks, Firefly is now unable to continue its work in Gaza and is now supporting a project in Cairo, Egypt for child refugees from Gaza.
The Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies revealed that over 2,500 civilians have been arrested by Israeli forces in northern Gaza with their fate unknown, including dozens of medical staff, civil defence and journalists.
The report says Israeli forces have executed at least 54 prisoners since the 15-month-long war, which includes names the army refuses to disclose.
There are an estimated tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been forcibly disappeared since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, with families not knowing the fate of their loved ones.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has recorded over 7,000 missing persons cases since the Israeli offensive began in October 2023.
