Arab Workers’ Return to Gaza Perimeter Sparks Concern

Workers from the Gaza Strip stand in line to enter Israel through the Erez border crossing, Sept. 28, 2023. Photo by Atia Mohammed/Flash90. Atia Mohammed/Flash90

Palestinian workers are reportedly being allowed into the Israeli security buffer zone along the border.

By JNS

Gazan workers have been photographed working near the border with Israel, apparently on behalf of the Israel Defense Forces, Israel’s Channel 14 television reported on Wednesday.

In the images, the workers could be seen toiling on some type of infrastructure under the protection, or watchful eye, of IDF tanks and soldiers.

The report noted that the work was taking place in the IDF-designated security buffer zone.

Israeli Air Force Col. (res.) Meir Most warned the panel against normalizing the presence of Gazans near the border fence, and called for any necessary construction work to be performed by Israeli contractors.

In related news, for the first time since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, Palestinian farmers have returned to ploughing just meters from the fence of Carmel, a settlement in the Hebron Hills, Israel National News reported on Wednesday.

Residents of the community protested the decision to allow Palestinians within the community’s security barrier, which had been maintained by the army since the Oct. 7 attack.

“This morning, the High Court of Justice returned us to the policy of Oct. 6,” said Eliram Azulay, head of the Hebron Hills Regional Council.

“These days, when hundreds of terrorists are being released throughout Judea and Samaria, the High Court of Justice allows Arabs to work in close proximity to the settlements in a way that is divorced from reality,” he continued.

Azulay demanded that Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and the security establishment launch an operation to enclose the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria, as well as the roads that they use, within a protective zone.

He also called for the removal of all illegal Palestinian construction near those communities.

On Monday, Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria), released a report showing Palestinian terrorists had targeted Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024.

Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.

The figures, which were cross-checked against official data from Israel’s security services, included 3,668 instances of rock-throwing, 843 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 671 attempts to blind drivers with laser pointers, 526 explosive charges, 364 cases of arson and 179 terrorist shootings.