The Israeli military confirmed that it took at least two people into custody but would not provide a total number or an on-the-record explanation Monday as to why they are being held.
Blindfolded and handcuffed arrested Palestinian men sit in the back of army truck on their way to an army base near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip next to Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, June 1, 2008, after being arrested in Gaza during an Israeli military operation. Three Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were wounded during an Israeli army incursion into the south of the Gaza Strip today, Palestinian medics and the army said.
American and Canadian officials say they are still trying to sort out the cause behind the Israeli military detaining members of a Canadian-American family in the Gaza Strip.
Members of the Alagha family say Ahmed Alagha and his two sons were arrested by Israeli forces last week.
"We fear, to be honest, for their lives," said Khalil Alagha, the brother-in-law of one of three missing Canadians.
"Because we don't know whether they have been only detained, or something else."
Ahmed, originally hailing from Kuwait, made his way to Toronto in the late 1990s.
According to his brother-in-law's statement, both Ahmed's sons, 18-year-old Borak and 20-year-old Hashem, were born in Toronto. Following their time in Canada, the family eventually relocated to the Middle East.
Khalil and his cousin, Yasmeen Elagha, both said that all three men have Canadian citizenship and that they were kidnapped by Israeli forces early on Thursday. Elagha said Borak and Hashem are also American citizens.
The family reported that men from a nearby household, as well as other adult male relatives from a different household, were taken away. The cousins stated that approximately 20 people in total were captured.
Elagha, describing them as hostages, highlighted the family's lack of information regarding the reasons for their capture or the location of their detention.
On Thursday, around 5:00 a.m., Israeli forces entered the family home in the al-Muwasi community near the southern city of Khan Younis.
The three men, along with a mentally disabled uncle and two other adult male relatives, were abducted by Israeli forces and are currently unaccounted for. Soldiers then bound and blindfolded the women and children in the family, placing them outside the home. Khalil told The Canadian Press that neighbors located and released them sometime after.
"They felt unsafe and vulnerable," he said.
Several family members were able to cross into Egypt late Monday.
Khalil revealed the three men taken into Israeli military custody had been denied approval to leave the Gaza Strip under a process run by Egyptian and Israeli officials.
It has become increasingly difficult for Palestinian men of military age to get on the list of foreigners allowed to leave the Gaza Strip.
Israel amended its Detention of Unlawful Combatants Law last December to bar detainees from meeting with lawyers for a month and to allow prison heads to extend that period up to 75 days.
The measure has been used by those captured in Gaza, including, reportedly, an 82-year-old Gaza woman who has Alzheimer's disease.
"We felt that (our family members) are really second-rate citizens. We understand the situation. But I think the Canadian authorities have the power to push for it, to get their citizens out," continued Khalil.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said she's raised the case with her Israeli counterpart as well as the Israeli military branch that operates in Gaza.
"This is of the utmost priority for us," she said Monday on Parliament Hill.
She added that parliamentary secretary Pam Damoff "has been in contact with the family."
Joly added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's requirement for Palestinians to evacuate the southern Gaza city of Rafah ahead of more military strikes makes no sense since the entire territory is unsafe and neighboring Egypt has reinforced its border.
"What the Netanyahu government is asking them to do, which is to leave again, is unacceptable because they have nowhere to go. And so that's why we need right now for the violence to stop."
What Does The United States Say?
According to The Associated Press, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday the administration will be talking with Israeli authorities about the reported detentions of the brothers, as well as the Israeli military's arrest of an American woman in the occupied West Bank earlier in the week. "We want to know more about the reasons here," Kirby told reporters at the White House.
"Obviously, this is the kind of thing we take very seriously," he said, and the U.S. will be "trying to get information, more context here about what happened."
Detention or death under an Israeli airstrike "were two of the biggest fears this family has had all along. And now the worst has happened," said Maria Kari, an immigration attorney who has been advocating for the family.
"It could have been avoided if the U.S. had more timely advocated for this family.''
