The Israeli authorities are preventing dozens of Palestinian families from travelling to meet their sons, who were released from the Israeli jails last month under the Gilad Shalit prisoner-swap deal, and were sent into exile in Syria, Turkey, Qatar, and the Gaza strip, the Palestine News & Info Agencies (WAFA) reported.The European Network to support the rights of Palestinians prisoners, UFree, issued a statement revealing that the Israeli army prevented Palestinian men, women and children from travelling through the Allenby crossing connecting Palestine with Jordan, whilst trying to visit their recently-released family members.
UFree added that Israel prevented the families of the former detainees of Mahmoud Qawasmeh, Ayman ‘Qfesheh, ‘Ala ‘Qfesheh, Murad Al-Rajoub , Majdi al-Jo’ba, Saed Shallada, Abdullah ‘Arra, Iyad ‘Obeyyat, and ‘Ubadah Bilal, from travelling to visit their released family members.
The Network slammed Israel’s claims for preventing a child identified as Sara Ayman ‘Qfesheh, 14, from travelling to see her father for what Israel labelled as “security concerns”. Sarah has never met her dad, and only knows him from photos.
The child said that she hopes she will finally be allowed to travel with her family in order to visit her father. She also voiced an appeal to human rights groups for help and assistance to enable her to finally meet her father.