(Jerusalem) Israel announced Thursday night into Friday the return of all Gazan workers stranded since the October 7 Hamas attack, and the “severing of all ties” with the territory controlled by the Islamic organization.
The Israeli Security Cabinet said in a statement that “Gaza workers who were in Israel on the day the war began will be returned to Gaza.”
The Council generally stressed that “Israel will sever all ties with Gaza, and there will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza.”
About 18,500 Gazans had work permits in Israel at the beginning of the war, according to the Coordination of Government Activities Unit (COGAT), the arm of the Israeli Defense Ministry that oversees civilian activities in the Palestinian territories.
In contact with Agence France-Presse, Kogat did not immediately provide the number of Gazan workers who were in Israel at the beginning of the conflict. Israeli media estimated this number at up to 4,000 people.
The Gaza Strip is under continuous attacks by the Israeli army in response to the Hamas attack that left at least 1,400 people dead, most of them civilians, on October 7 in Israel.
These strikes in Gaza have killed more than 9,000 people, most of them civilians, since the beginning of the conflict, and UN experts estimated on Thursday that the Palestinian people are “at risk of genocide.”
