UPDATED REPORT FROM THE PALESTINE GENERAL FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS (PGFTU) ON CONDITIONS OF PALESTINIAN WORKERS IN GAZA AND THE WEST BANK

UPDATED REPORT FROM THE PALESTINE GENERAL FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS (PGFTU) ON CONDITIONS OF PALESTINIAN WORKERS IN GAZA AND THE WEST BANK (as of May 1, 2024 - translated from Arabic)

This report is based on the cases that the General Federation of Trade Unions of Palestine was able to monitor -- those prevented from working, those targeted, persecuted, and detained, and those murdered at their workplaces or while in transit to or from work.

Since the start of the aggression against Gaza on October 7, 2024, Palestinian workers have received no income because they have been prevented from working.

In the Israeli labor market, there are 235,000 Palestinian workers, some of whom have started selling their furniture to feed their families. Their monthly losses are estimated at more than 1.35 billion shekels ($362,737,091), which has paralyzed the economy in the West Bank, resulting from the dismissal of more than 100,000 workers from their jobs inside Israel. Most of them were employed in agriculture and construction.

One hundred thirteen workers lost their lives in 2023, simply traveling to and performing their jobs as workers.

Palestinian Workers inside Israel in 2023:

79 died going to/from or while performing their jobs, 12 of whom were from Gaza
2 targeted by settlers
2 killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces
3, including Majed Ahmed Zaqoul and Mansour Nabhan and Rash Agha from Gaza, as a result of torture during interrogation in the occupation prisons after they were detained while they were at their workplaces.

Palestinian Workers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2023:

27 killed from the West Bank, among whom -
1 from the West Bank, targeted by settlers while he was picking olives on October 28, 2023;
1 a taxi driver was targeted by the occupation forces in Hebron governorate on November 13, 2023;
1 targeted by the occupation forces at the Beit Einoun junction in Hebron while working as a distributor of parcels on December 23, 2023;
5 while trying to reach their workplaces
10 died while performing their jobs since the beginning of 2024, including:

- Abd al-Rahim Abd al-Karim Amer from Qalqilya was killed on April 14,2024. At the same time, he and his son were detained In the occupation detention center Hadarim for more than two months under the pretext of working without a permit.

- Fayez Ahmed Awadalla Shahin, from Gaza, was martyred on April15, 2024 in the Nuweima shelter in Jericho as a result of the oppression he was subjected to due to his family's difficult situation in Gaza.

- Hassan Rabhi Khalil Mansiya from Dhahiriya, south of Hebron, was intercepted by the occupation forces, chased, arrested, assaulted, and then thrown off a building while he was returning from work inside the West Bank. (April 29, 2024)

Confirmed arrests of workers:

The General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions confirms that the number of Gaza workers in the Israeli labor market was approximately 19,000, whose permits have been revoked since the beginning of the events on October 7, 2023.

PGFTU monitored approximately 10,000 workers from Gaza at their workplaces, of whom 5,838 were provided with all their needs related to housing, food, and clothing by PGFTU.

80 workers were detained of 1,488 whose homes are in Gaza while returning from their jobs in the West Bank. The occupation forces arrested about 4,000 workers at their worksites in Israel; 3,200 of them were released and returned to the Gaza Strip. 800 remain detained.

PGFTU was able to monitor the total number of workers of 5,100 arrested since October 7th from the West Bank and Gaza, whether released or not, who work in the Israeli labor market.

For example:

* The arrest of three workers from Gaza in the town of Aqraba, southeast of Nablus, at dawn on Saturday, December 2, 2023;
* The arrest of 67 workers from Gaza in the town of Faroun, south of Tulkarm, at dawn on Thursday, December 7, 2023;
* 15 workers from Gaza were arrested in the municipality of Bidya as the occupation forces stormed the PGFTU headquarters and ransacked its contents on Sunday morning, January 14, 2024;
* The Israeli police arrested on Tuesday, 16/1/2024, at least 50 Palestinian workers from Hebron who have been stuck at their workplaces since the events of October 7, 2023;
* 40 Gazan laborers were arrested in their residences in Qalqilya governorate at dawn on Wednesday, 2024/1/17;
* Occupation forces arrested dozens of Gazan workers in the occupied territories from their workplaces in Barta'a, northwest of Jenin, at dawn on Saturday, February 17, 2024 ;
* The occupation forces arrested 50 Gazan workers from inside the shelter center in Nablus at dawn on Monday, February 26, 2024;
* 30 Gazan laborers were arrested after raiding the apartment building where they live in the town of Barta'a, south of Jenin, at dawn on Tuesday, February 27, 2024;
* 65 were arrested and transferred from their workplaces in raids that took place in the occupied city of Jaffa on Friday, March 15, 2024;
* 10 Palestinian workers from the West Bank were arrested in Ashkelon on Mar;

- The occupation forces killed 10 workers while entering Jerusalem from the Al-Zaim checkpoint, despite their having paid for their entry permits on April 14, 2024;
- Occupation forces arrested several workers while they were working inside a synagogue in the Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem on April 16, 2024;
- The occupation forces arrested 10 workers from Hebron inside a construction workshop in Caesarea, in the occupied territories south of Haifa, under the pretext of working without a permit April 17, 2024;
- Several West Bank workers were arrested inside an apartment in Tel Aviv on Saturday, April 27, 2024;
- Arrests of 2,000 workers from Gaza who were released from the Kerem Shalom crossing in November 2023.

Note: During the war, the occupation authority followed a policy of arresting and interrogating workers and then releasing them or keeping them under detention.

Note: These workers live in harsh detention conditions due to the physical abuse, torture, and starvation practiced against them during interrogation by the Israeli police in Abu Kabir and Anatot detention centers in the occupied territories.

There were 5,838 workers from Gaza working in towns and villages across the West Bank, of whom 1,488 were returned to Gaza.

Note: According to a report by Hebrew Channel 12, the Shin Bet security service of the occupation government confirmed that there were not any charges against the Palestinian workers, and after interrogating about 3,000 workers from Gaza who held permits to work in Israel, it turned out that they had nothing to do with any event since and before the events of October 7, which confirms the arrogance of the occupation and its force in continuing to abuse workers in all ways to deprive them of their livelihood.

We in the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions demand the following:

- Cease the persecution of workers in all places where they are located in the occupied territories and the West Bank;
- Allow workers to return safely to their homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and protect them while going there;
- The immediate and urgent release of all detained workers from the West Bank and Gaza;
- Pressure the Israeli government to compensate Palestinian workers working in the Israeli labor market who have been out of work for more than seven months.