About 18,500 Palestinians have permits to work in Israel; It is not known how many were in the country on October 7th
Israel announced on Thursday (November 2, 2023) that Palestinian workers with permits to work on Israeli territory must return to the Gaza Strip. The government said it would stop sending funds to Gaza and the Palestinian Authority.
“Israel breaks off all contacts with Gaza. There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza. Gaza workers who were in Israel on the day the war broke out will be returned to Gaza,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office wrote in the newspaper X (formerly Twitter).
According to Portal, the process of sending Palestinians back to the Gaza Strip began on Friday (November 3, 2023). Workers told the agency that they were detained by Israeli authorities after October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel.
The Israeli government did not say how many Palestinians will be affected by the measure. According to Al Jazeera, around 18,500 Gazans had work permits and were able to cross the borders into Israel.
The Israeli army said on November 5 (November 2) that it had ended the siege of the Gaza Strip and would “intensify” the ground offensive in the Palestinian territory. In a statement to reporters, Israeli army chief of staff Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi said the troops had taken “another significant step.” [na guerra] and the armed forces are now the focus of a ground operation in northern Gaza.”