Witnesses: Israel Returns Thousands of Workers Coming from Gaza

Journalists from Reuters reported that thousands of workers from the Gaza Strip who cross the border to work in Israel and the West Bank were returned to the Gaza Strip today, Friday. Witnesses indicated that some workers returned through the Kerem Shalom crossing, east of the Rafah border crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted last Thursday evening that "these workers from Gaza who were in Israel on the day the war broke out will be returned to Gaza." Workers who entered the Gaza Strip stated that Israeli authorities detained and mistreated them following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. Some of them still have plastic wristbands with numbers around their ankles. Jamal Ismail, a worker from the Maghazi camp in central Gaza, said, "We used to serve them and work for them in homes, restaurants, and markets for the lowest wages, and yet we were subjected to humiliation."