(Jerusalem) Israel announced on the night of Thursday to Friday to send back to Gaza all Gazan workers stranded since the Hamas attack on October 7, and to “cut all ties” with the territory controlled by the Islamist organization.
“Gaza workers who were in Israel on the day the war began will be sent back to Gaza,” the Israeli security cabinet said in a statement.
In general, “Israel cuts all ties with Gaza, there will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza,” the cabinet stressed.
Some 18,500 Gazans had work permits in Israel at the start of the war, according to Cogat, the arm of the Israeli Defense Ministry overseeing civilian activities in the Palestinian Territories.
Contacted by AFP, Cogat did not immediately provide the number of Gazan workers who were in Israel at the start of the conflict. This figure has been estimated at up to 4,000 people by Israeli media.
The Gaza Strip is the subject of continued strikes by the Israeli army in response to the Hamas attack which left at least 1,400 dead, mainly civilians, on October 7 in Israel.
These strikes in Gaza have left more than 9,000 dead, mostly civilians, since the start of the conflict, with UN experts estimating Thursday that the Palestinian people “are at serious risk of genocide”.