ShareJERICHO: It seems an incongruous question in the middle of the Zionist entity’s war on Hamas, but asked who wanted to return home, these Gazans stuck in the occupied West Bank responded as one: “Me, to be with my family.” “My wife is alone in Gaza City, under the bombs, with our four children. They are scared. They have nothing, no water, no food. I must go back to try to help them,” said a desperate Abdelazim al-Arifi, whose children are aged between seven months and nine years old.
Arifi, 29, had been working at a factory in the north of the Zionist entity for nine months when Hamas attacked the Zionist entity on Oct 7. Only a few days later, Zionist authorities annulled the 18,500 work permits given to Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, where unemployment sits at 50 percent.
Arifi, suddenly in the entity illegally, went to the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory. Around 1,500 Gazan workers have found themselves stranded in Jericho, in the south of the West Bank, according to the city’s deputy governor Yusra al-Sweity. The majority want to return to Gaza, she said. That’s despite the Zionist entity, which has pledged to destroy Hamas, continuing to bomb the coastal territory and sending in ground forces.
The Zionist entity has also cut off water, electricity and food, with only a trickle of aid trucks entering each day. Zionist bombardment has killed more than 11,100 people in Gaza, the territory’s health ministry says, mostly civilians and including more than 4,400 children. The relentless strikes, which have targeted hospitals, mosques, churches and schools, were launched in retaliation for Hamas’s attack, which Zionist officials say killed 1,200 people.
Fear of bad news
“I don’t know when they are going to leave,” said Sweity. “If they go to the checkpoint (to exit Jericho), the (Zionists) will arrest them. So a transfer has to be coordinated with the Zionist entity,” she added. The Zionist military administration in charge of the Palestinian territories did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gaza and the West Bank are separated from each other by territory occupied by the Zionist entity and sealed off by the Zionist army. In Jericho, around 350 workers have been housed at Al-Istiqlal university.
During the day, they wander around aimlessly, smoke, sleep and follow the bombings on their phones. “Every time the phone rings, we are afraid of bad news,” said one. Asked if it wasn’t better to be in the West Bank than under the bombs, there was a sudden wave of answers. “We don’t care if we die there. We want to be with our kids. So if something happens, we’ll be together,” said one. “We don’t sleep. All we do is think about our families,” added another. With photos to prove it, some of the workers said their families had already been killed by the bombardment.
A dangerous route
Wissam Mqout, 36, is in Jericho with his father Ismail, 55. The pair worked in construction in the Zionist entity before the war. “We managed to get a permit (to leave Gaza), after an investigation by the Zionist authorities. This shows that we have nothing to do with Hamas,” said Wissam. When he managed to speak to his wife on the phone, he could hear bombing. “I’m expecting to die every minute,” she told him recently. His 12-year-old son asked them if they thought they would ever see each other again.
Some workers have already been returned to the Gaza Strip. In early November, the Zionist entity sent thousands of Palestinian workers back to the territory, several of whom told AFP they had been imprisoned after their work permits were cancelled. The deputy governor of Jericho said the men in his city “can stay if they want, nobody will force them to leave.” Mohamed Rifi, 32, was one of those staying put. “I no longer have a home in Gaza. My family has evacuated to the south where they are staying in a school ... I won’t leave until there’s a ceasefire,” he said. – AFP
