The Washington Post reported that 10,000 Palestinian workers in Israel have been deported to the Gaza Strip amid escalating tensions.
People without phones, money or identification documents walked about two kilometers from Israel into the Gaza Strip on November 3 through the Kerem Shalom border crossing in Rafah, a city in the southern part of the territory, the Washington Post described.
US newspapers reported that Israel ordered the deportation of 10,000 Palestinians to the Gaza Strip. Previously, 18,500 Palestinians in Gaza, who were married men over the age of 25, were allowed to enter Israel and granted work permits. They mainly worked in agriculture and construction, under the Israeli government's policy to alleviate severe poverty in Gaza.
Gaza workers earn six times more in Israel than they do in the Strip, according to the Israel Institute for National Security Studies. The money they bring home has transformed Gaza, where unemployment has hovered at 45 percent for the past few years. Many families have paid off their debts. Infrastructure has improved.
But since the war broke out on October 7, these workers have been left in limbo. Their work permits have been revoked and many have been sent to Israeli prisons. Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip, where their families live, has been repeatedly attacked by Israel in retaliation for the Hamas raids.
Israel announced on November 3 that it had "cut off all communications with Gaza" and that "there will be no more Palestinian workers in Gaza".
Palestinian workers wait at the Kerem Shalom border crossing in Rafah on November 3. Photo: AFP
The UN Human Rights Office expressed "deep concern" at the move. "They are being sent back to Gaza. We don't know exactly where they are going, whether they have a home to go to," Elizabeth Throssell, a spokeswoman for the UN human rights office, said at a press conference in Geneva. She said the situation was very dangerous.
Israel has not commented on the Washington Post report.
Wael Abu Omar, a Gaza border official, estimates that there are still about 7,000 Gazans who have not returned to the enclave. They have been coming to the West Bank in recent weeks, looking for other Palestinians and shelter, fearing that they will be taken to detention camps by Israeli authorities. The West Bank is home to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, although Israel still occupies much of it.
Location of Kerem Shalom border crossing. Graphics: datawrapper
Some from Gaza have been in Ramallah, in the central West Bank, since the beginning of the week. For them, the scariest thing now is receiving word from Gaza that family members have been killed or are missing. They also worry that Israeli police and soldiers will raid their Ramallah shelters and arrest them.
“Every time we hear that the Israelis might be coming, we run up the hills like ants,” one migrant worker told the Guardian . “Even the elderly run.”
“I will never work in Israel again,” Olehe said.
Hong Hanh (According to Washington Post, Guardian )
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