Mohammad el Sharif was taken by Israeli forces in Gaza City last year. 

An Edinburgh-based charity has expressed its concern for one of its workers being held in an Israeli prison. 

Aid group Firefly International told the Sunday Mail that Mohammad el Sharif, who works the charity, was taken by Israeli forces last November but has not been heard from since. 

The psychotherapist had been working to support children through the trauma of the conflict. 

The charity believes the father-of-three is being held in the Sde Teiman prison in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

Firefly director Jane Salmonson told the newspaper: "His family haven't heard a thing since last November.

"We are all desperately worried.

"He will have been interrogated to see if he has links to Hamas even though he has none. They will want to prove people they are arresting like Mohammad are Hamas operatives.

"Mohammad's only interest was the wellbeing of the children he treats, not politics or war.

"We are desperately worried that he will not survive his incarceration.

"He is one of an estimated 20,000 Palestinian men who have disappeared with no further trace from Gaza."