Human rights organizations to the Minister of Defense: Release the Gaza laborers who worked in Israel pursuant to a work permit and allow their passage to the West Bank

On October 12, 2023, human rights organizations Adalah, ACRI, HaMoked, PHR-Israel and Gisha sent an urgent letter to the Minister of Defense, the Attorney General and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) regarding the incarceration of Palestinian laborers from the Gaza Strip in Israeli incarceration facilities against their will. These are people who worked throughout Israel pursuant to work permits prior to the horrific events beginning on October 7, 2023 with the Hamas attacks on communities in southwest Israel and continuing with Israel’s war declaration and aerial attacks on the Gaza Strip. On October 11, 2023, it turned out that the laborers’ permits had been revoked by Israel, and all record of their permits removed from the COGAT application for Palestinians (Al Munasek). Thus, Gaza residents who lawfully worked in Israel – having passed rigorous security checks before they received work permits – cannot return to their homes (where a war is raging), and are not even safe in Israel and are exposed to legal sanctions, having been turned overnight into illegal aliens. The organizations received many accounts painting a grim picture: in some cases, laborers were exposed to threats and violence at the hands of Israeli civilians as well as police officers and soldiers; many cannot be contacted and their families do not know their fate; others who have reached the West Bank in the hope of finding refuge were detained and questioned at length at military checkpoints; the mobile phones of hundreds of them have been seized and they have been incarcerated at military facilities in the West Bank without anyone being informed of their arrest and whereabouts – this without authority and without any orders published in the matter. Such mass arrests, without documentation and for an unknown period, without guaranteeing the detainees’ rights is utterly prohibited even during war. These are protected persons who rights Israel must safeguard. The revocation of permits constitutes unlawful collective punishment that puts the laborers’ wellbeing at risk. 

Therefore, the organizations demanded the immediate release of these protected persons from the incarceration facilities to the West Bank, to receive their names and whereabouts, and also to allow a group of attorneys to conduct visits to inspect the prison conditions.  

In an additional letter sent that day to the Attorney General, HaMoked and Gisha enquired about the detention of hundreds of Gaza residents and their enforced disappearance inside Israel. This concerns not only laborers who were staying in Israel pursuant to a work permit but also others, both noncombatants and combatants. The letter was sent following the Minister of Defense’s signing of an order declaring Sde Teiman military base as an incarceration facility of those designated by Israel as “unlawful combatants”, and reports that Gazans had been transferred to Anatot military base and minors from Gaza minors to Ofer military prison. The organizations asked for information regarding the detention of Gazans, including their names, whereabouts and a contact address to enable tracing them, in order to ensure their basic rights.