Gazan workers in Israel stranded in occupied West Bank

Abderrahman Balata and numerous other Gazans who had been working in Israel now find themselves stranded in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an unfamiliar place far from their war-torn homes.

In a one-star hotel room, Balata, 42, sat with other Palestinian workers watching non-stop news coverage of the fighting in Gaza. Their families are left behind under Israeli bombing, leaving the men feeling fear and impotence.

Hamas carried out a surprise operation against Israel on Saturday, breaking through the highly militarised border fence in Gaza before killing more than 900 people in Israel, which responded with artillery and air strikes that left another 900 people dead in the Palestinian enclave.

Balata said he decided to leave Tel Aviv where he worked as an electrician, fearing retaliation. "With three other workers we left Israel in a taxi".

"There is no way to get Gaza" which is under total Israeli siege, "which is why we went to the West Bank", he said. "I don't know anyone here", Balata said. "No one took us in, so we went to the governorate building and they put us in this hotel."

While Balata decided to go to the West Bank, other Palestinian workers said the Israeli army took them forcefully to the West Bank after detaining them for hours.

In the governorate building of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, tens of workers from the Gaza Strip sat in a room, waiting to be moved to a place to sleep. "They are our people, and we cannot abandon them in these exceptional circumstances, so at least they have the basic necessities of life," said the governor, Laila Ghannam:

Many workers refused to speak to the press for fear of losing their work permits.

Bassem Katarana, 41, said that his family told him that his son Suhail, 23, had been "martyred" in an air raid on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza. Katarana recounted how the Israeli army raided his workplace in the town of Ghadira while he was sleeping, confiscated his phone and papers, took his fingerprints before the papers were given back and then left him at a checkpoint on the road to Ramallah.

"My wife is stranded in Arish (Egypt). I hope we get to see my son before he is buried," Katarana said.

Longing 'to die together'

Israel has blockaded Gaza, home to around 2.3 million people – of whom more than 50 percent are unemployed – since Hamas assumed control there in 2007, leading to four previous wars with Israel. The Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said last month that it had issued about 18,500 work permits to Palestinians in Gaza.

The Palestinian Labour Office, which is responsible for Palestinian workers in Israel, reported the "expulsion of tens of Palestinian workers from their workplaces since the beginning of the fighting". Labour official Karim Mardawi recounted that "Saturday we started getting large numbers of workers at checkpoints who were leaving Israel".

Jawad, 43, who refused to give his full name, said he had been working in construction and cleaning. "Our employer locked us in a room on Saturday in Tiberias for our safety, then on Sunday morning put us on buses and said he's sending us to the West Bank without giving us any money. When we asked him to pay us, he threatened to turn us in to the police," said Jawad.

His bus stopped at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank. He first passed through Jenin, then Nablus, two towns that have witnessed deadly violence in recent months between Israeli soldiers and settlers on the one hand and Palestinian residents on the other.

"In Jenin and Nablus, everyone told us it was too dangerous," said Jawad, who ended up going to Ramallah. Jawad described his situation as "humiliating".

"I have no money. My family is in Gaza and my children call me crying, asking when I will come back," he said. "If they are martyred, I would not be able to see them. It's better if I'm there with them so we can die together," he said, wishing he could go home "right away".    (AFP)