The Muamar family detention incident occurred very early on the morning of June 24, 2006, in the first taking of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) since the Israeli evacuation of Gaza one year earlier,[1] when IDF soldiers entered the house of the Muamar family in a village near Rafah, at 03:30 local time (00:30 GMT) and detained Osama and Mustafa Muamar.[2] The BBC reports the village name as Umm al-Nasser[2]
Ali Muamar, father of the two men detained, Osama Muamar and Mustafa Muamar, stated "They blindfolded and handcuffed me and started beating me up with the butts of their rifles and kicking me."[2] He stated that a computer was taken and that the whole incident lasted for about an hour.[2]
An Israeli spokesman confirmed the detentions, said that both men were members of the militant group Hamas intending to carry out imminent attacks on Israel and stated "These Palestinians were transferred to Israel where they will be questioned".[3][2] A spokesman for Hamas confirmed that the brothers were sons of a member but denied that the men detained were involved in Hamas.[2][3]
This event was followed by capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on June 25, 2006 and further incidents in the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict.
This is claimed by Noam Chomsky[4] and Jonathan Cook for the Media Lens website[5] to be the first incident in the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict and the following 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
Noam Chomsky has noted that the arrest of the Muamar brothers was virtually ignored in the major media, in contrast to the capture of Gilad Shalit.[6].