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Illustrative. Published by Maan News
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GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities detained a Palestinian merchant at the Erez crossing between the northern Gaza Strip and Israel on Tuesday evening.

Sources at the Palestinian liaison said that Israeli intelligence stopped Omar Abu Asad, 25, who was with his ill mother on their way to the occupied West Bank for treatment.

After detained Abu Asad, Israeli authorities transferred him to an unidentified location, and forced his mother to return to the besieged Gaza Strip, sources added.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities had detained two Palestinian merchants at the Erez crossing on Sunday.

A spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for implementing Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, was not immediately available for comment.

Erez is the only land crossing between Gaza and Israel, although travel is heavily restricted by Israeli authorities as part of a crippling blockade on the coastal enclave in place since 2007.

Palestinians detained at Erez are often interrogated for several hours, sometimes for days, before they are either allowed into Israel or sent back to Gaza.

The Gaza Strip has suffered under an Israeli military blockade since 2007, when Hamas was elected to rule the territory. Residents of Gaza suffer from high unemployment and poverty rates, as well as the consequences of three devastating wars with Israel since 2008, most recently in the summer of 2014.

The UN has said that the besieged Palestinian territory could become "uninhabitable" by 2020, as its 1.8 million residents remain in dire poverty due to the Israeli blockade that has crippled the economy, while continuing to experience slow-paced reconstruction efforts aimed at rebuilding homes for some 75,000 Palestinians who remain displaced since 2014.