A Palestinian child holds a photographed of a relative held in Israeli prison, at protest in Gaza City. (Wissam Nassar, Maan Images)

You would think the baby boy named Yousef has his life ahead of him. But who knows, with a child born to Palestinian parents from Gaza. What's more, Yousef was born in an Israeli prison.

He is the only one of Fatima al-Zeq's nine children who is with her for that reason - she was arrested nine months ago. But these days the baby is not with her. He developed stomach pain, began to vomit, and has been transferred to a hospital inside Hasharon prison in Israel.

Fatima has written to human rights organisations in Gaza asking for their help in seeing the baby is looked after, something she cannot do herself.

Her other children do not know why mother is in prison; the Israelis haven't told them, and they haven't told Palestinian authorities. And they declined to tell IPS. If anything, the Israelis say the arrests are for "security reasons".

According to a Palestinian source, she was arrested because Israeli authorities suspected she would carry out an attack in Israel. No explosives were found on her. Another source suggests that she was arrested because she is a relative of an Islamic Jihad leader.

Fatema had gone to an Israeli hospital to seek treatment, and had a permit for it, her family members say. But at the checkpoint they arrested her and threw her in jail. She joins thousands of Palestinians inside Israeli jails. And their families are not always told why they are in prison, whether they have been charged, or convicted, and when, if ever, they will be released.

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Jumana Abu Jazar, 7, knows all about this. "My mother died, and I have no brothers and sisters," she says, looping the string of a picture frame around a rusting nail in her house in Gaza. "Father is in jail in Israel. He lives there in a dark cell. I saw him once."

Jumana lives with her grandmother Umm Ala'a in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Umm Ala'a says Jumana's father "was arrested by Israeli occupation forces in 2001 on his way back through the Rafah border. He was accompanying his father, who had received medical treatment abroad. An Israeli judge sentenced him to 18 years in jail."

Again, the family say they have no idea what crime he committed. But one thing is clear; he, and so many others arrested, are not the ones being punished for firing rockets into Israel.

Nor have most of them carried out what Israel considers terrorist attacks. They are guilty of being members of political groups - or so their families believe.

"His crime is he was Palestinian," Umm Ala'a said. "This is a tax on life that we all pay."

To read the full article please visit Inter Press Service.