Israel-Hamas war
Some 3,200 people were reportedly sent into the war-torn strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing in a “deeply worrying” operation
Thousands of Palestinian workers from Gaza who were stranded in Israel when war broke out last month have been deported back to the war-torn Strip after being expelled by the Israeli government.
A Guardian reporter in Rafah, on the southern edge of the strip, saw a steady stream of men of all ages without phones, money or ID cards entering the area through the Kerem Shalom trade border crossing on Friday morning, after walking about two kilometers from the Israeli side of the border. Mada Masr, an independent Egyptian news agency, said about 3,200 people had been sent back through the checkpoint controlled by Israel and Egypt.
The U.N. human rights office said it was “deeply concerned” about the deportations. “They will be sent back, we don’t know exactly where, [and whether they] I even have a home to go to,” her spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell said at a news conference in Geneva. She said it was an incredibly dangerous situation.
The Israeli government has been contacted for comment on the transfer.
The fifth round of war between Israel and Hamas since the Palestinian militant group seized control of the Strip in 2007 began on October 7 after a bloody Hamas rampage in Israel left 1,400 people dead. More than 9,000 Palestinians were subsequently killed in Israeli bombings and ground invasions in the tiny strip of land that is home to 2.3 million people with nowhere to flee the violence.
On Thursday, Israel’s security cabinet said in a statement that the country was “severing all contact with Gaza.” “There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza,” it said.
Before this month, 18,500 married men over the age of 25 had permission from Israeli authorities to enter the country, mainly to work in agriculture and construction. This is part of an Israeli policy aimed at alleviating Gaza’s grinding poverty and creating an economic lifeline for it. It was assumed that Hamas would be unwilling to endanger it.
An unknown number of these workers were caught up in raids across Israel in the days following October 7 and detained under the principle of administrative detention, which allows the arrest of suspects without charge or access to the evidence against them on the grounds that they could break the law in the future.
Many said they had been tortured or otherwise ill-treated in military prisons in recent weeks. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had repeatedly denied access to the arrested workers, who were being held as “enemy non-combatants.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on the arrests or allegations of ill-treatment.
Several thousand people are believed to have made their way to the occupied West Bank in recent weeks in search of their compatriots and a relatively safe haven. The Guardian met several Gazan workers stranded in Ramallah, the administrative capital of the West Bank, earlier this week.
They had two big fears: They live in fear of a text message or phone call from Gaza saying that their family has been killed or is missing under the rubble, and they fear that Israeli police and soldiers will raid their home in Ramallah and them would lock up suspected terrorists.
“When we hear that the Israelis might come, we run to the mountains and scatter like ants,” said one migrant worker. “The old people run too.” He was one of around 700 men from Gaza who had turned the gym and leisure center in Ramallah into a de facto refugee camp.
A month ago, they were among the relatively privileged cohort of Palestinians from Gaza who were allowed to leave the impoverished area and work in Israel, where salaries are six times higher, according to a report released last year by the Israel Institute for National Security Studies published study shows.
By October 7, more and more workers were crossing the border into Israel every day – 18,500 of the promised 20,000 permits, taking home £2 million a day, according to Palestinian and Israeli statistics. More Palestinians left the Strip each day during the program than in the previous 16 years of the siege combined.
This money made a big difference in Gaza, where unemployment had hovered around 45% in recent years. Families were able to pay off debts from businesses and projects that failed due to restrictions imposed on the Strip’s economy; Reconstruction after the 2021 war was faster than after previous episodes of conflict, with new cafes and shops opening.
But after Hamas attacked southern Israel, Israeli security forces began rounding up Gazan workers. It is not clear how many are still imprisoned or still hiding in Israel or the West Bank, feeling like refugees.
“When I saw the news, I knew it was too dangerous to go to work. “The police arrested all Gazans,” said 31-year-old Ahmad, who worked as a cook at a kebab restaurant in Tel Aviv. He and six work colleagues from Gaza sat in their shared basement apartment and wondered what they should do. After two days, Ahmad went to buy food. When he returned, he found the apartment empty and turned it upside down – the police had searched and arrested his roommates.
In Tel Aviv, Ahmad joined forces with other Gazan workers who rented a bus and fled to the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority provided mattresses and food to the men at the Ramallah recovery center, one of several emergency shelters in the area, but has done little to protect them from Israeli raids.
Workers spend their days charging their phones, checking the news and trying to contact friends and family back home. As they receive grim news, some cry and faint – ambulances have been called – and others fall silent. “My wife and sons are fine, but I have nightmares,” Ahmad said.
Abu Mahmoud, 56, who used to clean a supermarket in the coastal city of Herzliya, braces himself every time he calls his wife, who is in Gaza City with their children. “There is bombing day and night. They can’t eat or sleep.”
Abu Mahmoud, a worker from Gaza, is stranded in the West Bank. Photo: Rory Carroll/The Guardian
His six-year-old daughter begs him to come home. “She says, ‘Baba, come, we need you,'” he said.
Mahmoud said he would leave if he could despite the carnage, but Israel has blockaded the enclave. “All I can do is tell my wife to be strong.”
Sayef Olehe, 30, who fled his job as a butcher, said he went from worrying about his family to worrying about being arrested. “Nobody knows anything about the detainees.”
In a recent phone call, his three-year-old daughter asked a question he couldn’t answer. “She said, ‘Why are you working in Israel?’ They’re killing us.’”
Olehe said he would not work in Israel again.
Additional reporting by Sufian Taha
{{#Ticker}}
{{top left}}
{{bottom left}}
{{top right}}
{{bottom right}}
{{#goalExceededMarkerPercentage}}{{/goalExceededMarkerPercentage}}{{/ticker}}
{{Headline}}
{{#paragraphs}}
{{.}}
{{/paragraphs}}{{highlightedText}}
{{#choiceCards}}{{/choiceCards}}We will be in touch to remind you to contribute. Watch for a message in your inbox. If you have any questions about contributing, please contact us.