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Israel-Hamas war: The Israel authorities have deported thousands of Palestinians workers, whom they had detained since the 7 October Hamas attack. The Palestinian authorities confirmed the development adding that they workers had been subjected to torture and interrogation.
An Al Jazeera report cites a workers who returned to the Gaza Strip, said that the workers were arrested and tagged on 8 October before being taken to Ofer Prison on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
They were summoned for interrogation and tortured on electrical chairs for several days.
Some workers, streaming by foot through an Israeli crossing that had been sealed shut since Hamas unleashed its brutal attack on southern Israel 7 October told of violent mistreatment by Israeli authorities in detention centers.
According to an AP report, roughly 18,000 Palestinians from Gaza had been allowed to work in menial jobs in Israel.
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The permits have been coveted in Gaza, which has an unemployment rate approaching 50%. Israel began issuing the permits in recent years, a measure it thought helped stabilize Gaza and moderate Hamas, despite a broader blockade aimed at weakening the Islamic fighter group.
The workers sent home on Friday talked about a massive roundup and being placed in Israeli prisons. Some returned with bruises and other wounds from what they said was abuse at the hands of Israeli authorities. Others returned psychologically scarred, the AP report added.
Those who were arrested were sent to the Anatot and Ofer military prisons in the West Bank. There, workers said, they were blindfolded, interrogated, beaten repeatedly and deprived of water and food for extended periods, the report added.
Palestinian workers who were rounded up said Israeli soldiers confiscated their money and cellphones. On Friday, they said they never got their belongings back.
“They sent us back home with nothing,” said al-Sajda. “Nothing.”
Several Israeli human rights organisations, such as Gisha and HaMoked, said some of the workers had been illegally detained in military facilities in breach of international law. The organisations have sent petitions and individual inquiries to Israeli authorities demanding information on the whereabouts of the workers as well as those of other Gaza residents who had received medical permits to enter Israel and were also rounded up.
(With agency inputs)
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Updated: 04 Nov 2023, 06:49 PM IST
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