Workers from Gaza who were stranded in Israel after October 7 were summarily arrested, interrogated, beaten, and tortured, before being declared illegal by Israeli authorities.
BY ASEEL MOUSA
MONDOWEISS
NOVEMBER 23, 2023
PALESTINIAN WORKERS, WHO WERE STRANDED IN ISRAEL SINCE THE OCTOBER 7 ATTACKS, WALK NEAR THE RAFAH BORDER CROSSING WITH EGYPT AS THEY MAKE THEIR WAY BACK INTO GAZA STRIP FROM THE KEREM SHALOM COMMERCIAL BORDER CROSSING, NOVEMBER 3, 2023. (PHOTO: STR/APA IMAGES)
Ahmad, 58, has been working in Israel as a mechanic since he was 24 years old. He worked in Israel for nearly 20 years until Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007. Then, after nearly 17 years of a brutal Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, he returned a year and a half ago to work in Ashdod as a mechanic.
The moment the Palestinian resistance began its attack on October 7, Israel declared war, and Palestinian workers who had been working in Israel were stranded.
“I have been working in Israel for two and a half months,” Ahmad told Mondoweiss. “I visited my family in Gaza only once, and when Israel declared war, I immediately decided to return home, but Israel bombed the Erez crossing, so I had no way to return to my family.”
To check in on the status of the validity of their work permit, Palestinian workers sign in to an app run by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an organ of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. If the work permit is revoked, they get notified with a text message.
After the launch of ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza, the Israeli authorities revoked all work permits without informing the workers. Israel then conducted a large-scale detention campaign against the stranded workers, nearly doubling the Palestinian prison population overnight.
Ahmad stayed in the car shop with his colleague Waseem, also from Gaza, for nearly two weeks after the Israeli authorities suspended work permits. This meant that the presence of Ahmad and all Gazan workers in Israel became illegal.
“I felt like I was someone sitting on hot coals,” Ahmad said. “I was terrified for my family and loved ones in the Gaza Strip, [because] I know the brutality of the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip. I have lived through five Israeli invasions, and this is now the sixth.”
Two weeks into Ahmad’s time spent staying in the car shop, Israeli authorities raided the garage and arrested Ahmad and his colleague.
“Upon arrest, the occupation forces assaulted me by beating and abusing me,” he told Mondoweiss. “Waseem disappeared from that moment, and I have not recieved any news of him since.”
Ahmad was taken to Ashdod Police station and interrogated.
“We were 11 people in a cell no larger than 4 square meters,” he said. “The police interrogated us for long hours, asking me about so many people. But I don’t know anyone but my relatives and some friends, as I spend most of my time at work.”
They asked him where he lives in Gaza, and after he answered them, they pulled up a computer screen and showed him a picture of his house to indicate that they already know exactly where he lived.
“He then asked me about Hamas and other Palestinian factions,” Ahmad said. “He tried to pressure me, but I honestly have nothing to do with them, so I could not answer. I know nothing.”
During the investigation, the Israeli authorities took saliva samples, fingerprints, and mug shots. “I told the policeman investigating me that I am an old man, and am about to turn 60,” Ahmad said. “And I have never entered a police station in my entire life.”
“After that, they blindfolded us, and the occupation forces put chains on our feet and beat us. They then took us to an unknown area.”
“I felt like I would die of hunger and fatigue.”Ahmad
Some workers believed that they were in Ofer Prison outside Ramallah since they could hear the call to prayer in the distance. Some of the workers used to visit Ramallah and could recognize its buildings, and they said that the buildings they saw from afar looked like Ramallah buildings.
“We didn’t eat for two days,” Ahmad said. “I felt like I would die of hunger and fatigue.”
They then transferred the detained Gaza workers to a training site for the Israeli army, which lacked even the bare minimum requirements for humane conditions.
“The occupation forces put us in wards,” Ahmad recounted. “We were approximately 250 people packed in an area not exceeding half a dunam [about 500 square meters].”
“We slept on the ground on pebbles,” he continued. “We only had a small piece of bread and some jam for breakfast. They weren’t giving enough food to anyone.”
Ahmad asserts that the condition of the bathrooms was miserable, and they were left exposed to the elements. “It was very cold. We were in an almost empty area, and the rain fell on our heads,” he said. “We did not sleep at night, as Israeli intelligence was summoning us all the time, either to transfer us to another ward without the slightest reason or to interrogate us.”
Ahmad waited for his turn to be interrogated from ten in the evening until two in the morning, sitting on the gravel with his eyes closed. After investigating Ahmad, the Israeli intelligence accused him of being a liar and told him that it had not issued him a permit to work in Israel again.
“After being violently investigated and searched, the occupation forces told me: Run, run!” Ahmad recounted. “And I ran for approximately 300 meters, and they returned me to a ward other than the one I was in just to distract me and disorient me by putting me in a new war with strangers.”
“An old man told me that his back was stained with blood.”Ahmad
According to Ahmad, many of the workers were subjected to interrogation by the Shin Bet and Israeli intelligence several times, and some of them set upon by police dogs.
“An old man, a Gaza worker in Israel, told me that his back was stained with blood,” Ahmad said. “And that the Israeli occupation forces stripped him completely, put him in a transparent nylon bag, put him on the ground, turned on air conditioners on him, and beat him severely until he almost died.”
“It’s been said that three people were killed by such torture because they could not bear it.” Ahmad said. “Their bodies are being tortured.”
PALESTINIAN WORKERS, WHO WERE STRANDED IN ISRAEL SINCE THE OCTOBER 7 ATTACKS, WALK NEAR THE RAFAH BORDER CROSSING WITH EGYPT AS THEY MAKE THEIR WAY BACK INTO GAZA STRIP FROM THE KEREM SHALOM COMMERCIAL BORDER CROSSING, NOVEMBER 3, 2023. (PHOTO: STR/APA IMAGES)Ahmad, 58, has been working in Israel as a mechanic since he was 24 years old. He worked in Israel for nearly 20 years until Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007. Then, after nearly 17 years of a brutal Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, he returned a year and a half ago to work in Ashdod as a mechanic.
The moment the Palestinian resistance began its attack on October 7, Israel declared war, and Palestinian workers who had been working in Israel were stranded.
“I have been working in Israel for two and a half months,” Ahmad told Mondoweiss. “I visited my family in Gaza only once, and when Israel declared war, I immediately decided to return home, but Israel bombed the Erez crossing, so I had no way to return to my family.”
To check in on the status of the validity of their work permit, Palestinian workers sign in to an app run by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an organ of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. If the work permit is revoked, they get notified with a text message.
After the launch of ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza, the Israeli authorities revoked all work permits without informing the workers. Israel then conducted a large-scale detention campaign against the stranded workers, nearly doubling the Palestinian prison population overnight.
Ahmad stayed in the car shop with his colleague Waseem, also from Gaza, for nearly two weeks after the Israeli authorities suspended work permits. This meant that the presence of Ahmad and all Gazan workers in Israel became illegal.
“I felt like I was someone sitting on hot coals,” Ahmad said. “I was terrified for my family and loved ones in the Gaza Strip, [because] I know the brutality of the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip. I have lived through five Israeli invasions, and this is now the sixth.”
Two weeks into Ahmad’s time spent staying in the car shop, Israeli authorities raided the garage and arrested Ahmad and his colleague.
“Upon arrest, the occupation forces assaulted me by beating and abusing me,” he told Mondoweiss. “Waseem disappeared from that moment, and I have not recieved any news of him since.”
Ahmad was taken to Ashdod Police station and interrogated.
“We were 11 people in a cell no larger than 4 square meters,” he said. “The police interrogated us for long hours, asking me about so many people. But I don’t know anyone but my relatives and some friends, as I spend most of my time at work.”
They asked him where he lives in Gaza, and after he answered them, they pulled up a computer screen and showed him a picture of his house to indicate that they already know exactly where he lived.
“He then asked me about Hamas and other Palestinian factions,” Ahmad said. “He tried to pressure me, but I honestly have nothing to do with them, so I could not answer. I know nothing.”
During the investigation, the Israeli authorities took saliva samples, fingerprints, and mug shots. “I told the policeman investigating me that I am an old man, and am about to turn 60,” Ahmad said. “And I have never entered a police station in my entire life.”
“After that, they blindfolded us, and the occupation forces put chains on our feet and beat us. They then took us to an unknown area.”
“I felt like I would die of hunger and fatigue.”Ahmad
Some workers believed that they were in Ofer Prison outside Ramallah since they could hear the call to prayer in the distance. Some of the workers used to visit Ramallah and could recognize its buildings, and they said that the buildings they saw from afar looked like Ramallah buildings.
“We didn’t eat for two days,” Ahmad said. “I felt like I would die of hunger and fatigue.”
They then transferred the detained Gaza workers to a training site for the Israeli army, which lacked even the bare minimum requirements for humane conditions.
“The occupation forces put us in wards,” Ahmad recounted. “We were approximately 250 people packed in an area not exceeding half a dunam [about 500 square meters].”
“We slept on the ground on pebbles,” he continued. “We only had a small piece of bread and some jam for breakfast. They weren’t giving enough food to anyone.”
Ahmad asserts that the condition of the bathrooms was miserable, and they were left exposed to the elements. “It was very cold. We were in an almost empty area, and the rain fell on our heads,” he said. “We did not sleep at night, as Israeli intelligence was summoning us all the time, either to transfer us to another ward without the slightest reason or to interrogate us.”
Ahmad waited for his turn to be interrogated from ten in the evening until two in the morning, sitting on the gravel with his eyes closed. After investigating Ahmad, the Israeli intelligence accused him of being a liar and told him that it had not issued him a permit to work in Israel again.
“After being violently investigated and searched, the occupation forces told me: Run, run!” Ahmad recounted. “And I ran for approximately 300 meters, and they returned me to a ward other than the one I was in just to distract me and disorient me by putting me in a new war with strangers.”
“An old man told me that his back was stained with blood.”Ahmad
According to Ahmad, many of the workers were subjected to interrogation by the Shin Bet and Israeli intelligence several times, and some of them set upon by police dogs.
“An old man, a Gaza worker in Israel, told me that his back was stained with blood,” Ahmad said. “And that the Israeli occupation forces stripped him completely, put him in a transparent nylon bag, put him on the ground, turned on air conditioners on him, and beat him severely until he almost died.”
“It’s been said that three people were killed by such torture because they could not bear it.” Ahmad said. “Their bodies are being tortured.”
Return to Gaza after tortue
On November 3, at approximately 11 p.m., the Israeli occupation put Israeli workers on a bus, blindfolded them, handcuffed them, and tied their legs to chains. They did not tell them where they would be transported. They did not know whether they would be going back to their homes in Gaza or the West Bank.
“I stayed on the bus from approximately 11 p.m. until 11 a.m. on the second day. The person whose feet were tied to my feet was diabetic and kept vomiting the whole way. We begged the Israeli soldier to untie his feet and hands, but she refused. This is the true face of the occupation. They do not have the slightest bit of humanity.”
The workers arrived at the Kerem Shalom crossing and walked a distance of one and a half kilometers to reach the nearest car that would take them home.
Ahmad mentions that the occupation forces confiscated his identity, permit, and 11,000 shekels and told him that he would find them in Gaza, but he arrived in Gaza and did not find any of them!
Ahmad says that Israel claims humanity and conveys it to the world through pictures that falsify the truth. “Only once did they offer us tea while we were out in the open, and they photographed us when they did!” Ahmad said bitterly. “When we arrived in the Gaza Strip, they distributed water to us and took pictures of us, but we refused to drink the water that was offered to us.”
“When I arrived at the neighborhood where I live, I could not easily enter my house to fetch money to pay the driver who gave me a ride. The occupation confiscated all my money. I found that many of the houses adjacent to my house had been bombed, and rubble was filling the streets,” he added.
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