Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Source: Israeli intelligence tries to recruit Gaza fishermen as agents

[ 08/04/2009 - 10:51 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- A Palestinian security source revealed that the Israeli intelligence started recently a campaign of arrest and interrogation against Gaza fishermen with the aim of recruiting the largest number of spies in the Strip after Israel lost contact with many of its informers in the last war on Gaza.

The source told Al-Majd website that the last of these arrests took place at dawn Tuesday where the Israeli military navy kidnapped a number of fishermen at sea and took them to an unknown destination.

The source added Israeli Shabak officers interrogate the kidnapped fishermen about the situation in Gaza in general and the Palestinian resistance in particular and threaten them to target them at sea if they do not cooperate.

Al-Majad website, which raises the security awareness among the Palestinian people, met with a number of Gaza fishermen who said that they refused to collaborate with the Israeli intelligence despite its threats.

A naval police officer in Gaza told Al-Majd website that the naval police are in constant contact with all fishermen who in turn keep the authorities informed on what happens during their detention, adding that the Israeli occupation authority can never undermine the Palestinian fishermen's patriotism.

In a related context, the Palestinian ministry of agriculture deplored the ongoing Israeli piracy in Gaza waters, asserting that the Israeli military gunboats carry out mass kidnappings against Palestinian fishermen and deliberately sabotage their boats and property.

The ministry reported Wednesday in a statement received by the PIC that the Israeli occupation forces kidnapped Tuesday morning eight fishermen fishing off the coast of Jabaliya in northwest Gaza and pressured them to work for Israel as informers or else they would be targeted by military gunboats.

In another context, researcher in prisoners' affairs Abdelnasser Farwana stated that the arrests have become part of the Palestinian citizens' daily lives in the West Bank, where many of these arrests are carried out as a revenge measure or to blackmail some Palestinian parties.

Farwana underlined that the Israeli arrests have gradually increased since the beginning of the current year, asserting that he registered during last March the arrest of 395 Palestinians from the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.

The researcher noted that these arrests are carried out in violation of the rules of humanitarian law and often accompanied by humiliation and physical assault, calling on human rights organizations to assume their responsibilities towards these Israeli violations.