Gaza strip – The past few weeks have been extremely painful for Zaki Salama, a Gazan who was working construction in an Israeli town when the war broke out on October 7.
In the period following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israeli army positions and surrounding villages that day – and the relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces since then – Salama was arrested, tortured and interrogated.
The 55-year-old said he “deeply regrets” working in Israel. He refused to reveal his place of work for fear of retaliation from the Israeli army. He is one of at least 18,500 Gazans who have obtained permits to work outside the Strip.
Salama said that he and other Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip were arrested and tagged on October 8 before being transferred to Ofer Prison on the outskirts of the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. They were summoned for interrogation and tortured in what Salama described as an electric chair for several days.
“The Israelis asked us strange questions,” he said. “They wanted to know where the Hamas tunnels were located, where the rocket launchers were located and how fighters moved in and around Gaza.”
He added that the occupation authorities also interrogated the workers about their neighbors, their residential areas, and those who live there, and threatened them with life imprisonment.
“They wanted to know what we know about the Al-Aqsa flood operation,” he said, referring to the surprise Hamas attack that killed 1,400 Israelis.
“Some young men were tortured and humiliated in a very brutal way,” Salama said. “The questions were ridiculous. The Israelis know exactly who we are, and if we had any ties to Hamas, we wouldn’t even get work permits.
On Friday morning, the Israeli army said it had released 3,200 workers from Gaza to the coastal enclave via the southern Kerem Shalom crossing, or Kerem Shalom.
This followed the Israeli government’s decision the night before not to grant these workers work permits again.
The Israeli government press office said on Thursday that “Israel will cut off all contacts with Gaza.”
There will be no more Palestinian workers from Gaza. “Workers from Gaza who were in Israel on the day the war broke out will be returned to Gaza.”
They were expelled, arrested, arrested
Gazans with permits allowing them to work outside the Strip were mostly construction workers, while others worked in restaurants and shopping malls. The money they received was a source of some relief after Israel’s 17-year blockade of the Gaza Strip devastated the economy, sending unemployment soaring to nearly 50 percent.
These workers who obtained permits were approved after strict security screening by Israeli intelligence and the Israeli army. This means that after a careful examination of the background of each worker, it was confirmed that he was a civilian and had no political affiliations in the Gaza Strip or connections with Palestinian armed groups and resistance factions.
But when Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army began expelling Gaza workers from their workplaces in Israeli cities.
Thousands of workers, like Salama, were arrested and transferred to Ofer Prison. Some of them were arrested and detained in other undisclosed locations without communicating with their families. Others were thrown at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and made their way to Palestinian cities with only the clothes they were wearing.
Several Israeli human rights organizations, such as Gisha and HaMoked, said some workers were illegally detained in military facilities in violation of international law. The organizations have sent individual petitions and inquiries to the Israeli authorities demanding information on the whereabouts of the workers as well as other Gazans who obtained medical permits to enter Israel and were also arrested.
Fadi Bakr, who worked in an Israeli mall, was fired from his job on October 7. The 29-year-old obtained a work permit a year and a half ago, and usually spent a week at a time in Israel before returning to his family in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
After his dismissal, Bakr headed to the occupied West Bank and remained in Hebron with other workers who, he said, were distraught by the atrocities unfolding in the Gaza Strip.
“I was very worried about my young children, my wife and my family,” he said. “The intensity of the bombing in Gaza is unlike anything we have seen before. It is cruel and brutal, and I can barely communicate with my family.”
A few days later, the occupation forces stormed the Bakr building, where the workers were staying, and took them to Ofer Prison.
The workers were detained for 20 days before being released.
He said: “For the first time, I feel very afraid because I do not know whether I will see my family again or not.”
“The Israelis were interrogating us day and night about our relationship with Hamas, even though there was no connection between us and any political movement. “We just came to work.”
The workers also said that they are mentally exhausted from thinking about their families in light of the ongoing Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Bakr said he was angry that the Palestinian Authority appeared to have taken no action to challenge their detention or verify their safety.
“How can Israeli forces raid cities, which are supposedly under the control of the Palestinian Authority?” he asked bitterly. “We had no protection, and no Palestinian official came to our defense or even asked how we were treated or about the possibility of our release from prison.”
The fate of the other workers is unknown
The Israeli attack devastated the Gaza Strip and killed more than 9,000 people, including 3,826 children. More than 32,000 people were injured in attacks on densely populated areas, including refugee camps and residential homes. United Nations estimates indicate that 45% of Gaza’s homes were damaged or destroyed.
In addition to the blockade that prevents Gaza from accessing fuel, clean water and electricity, most infrastructure and major roads have been severely damaged.
As the workers crossed into the Gaza Strip on Friday, signs of fatigue and exhaustion appeared on their faces, and they wondered about their families and how to reach them.
Salama’s family was living in the northern town of Beit Lahia, but were forced to leave due to heavy bombing. They are now taking shelter in a UN-run school in Khan Yunis.
He said: “There were no cars or other vehicles to transport me from the far south to the central region.”
The roads are not safe, but he was able to take a tuk-tuk and a horse-drawn cart that other workers’ relatives had brought with them to the crossing.
The fate of thousands of other Gazans who worked in Israel remains unknown.
Tasneem Akl, who lives in Gaza City, last saw her father two weeks ago on October 7.
She said: “I called him once during the first days of the war, and he told me that he was still working in Israel.” “But then news began to spread about the expulsion of workers and their deportation to areas of the West Bank.”
When Tasneem tried to contact her father again, she did not receive any response. She was able to contact her father’s friend, a colleague who had left with him via the northern Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing.
She said: “All I discovered was that my father lost his phone while he was in Ramallah.” He added: “His friend said he had no news about him, and most likely my father is still detained in prison.”
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