Israel said to hold body of Palestinian who fell to death while trying to enter illegally for work

A Palestinian fell to his death while trying to enter Israel illegally for work overnight, the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate says.

Jihad Quzmar of the village of Izbet Salman, said to be 58, fell while trying to climb over the West Bank barrier into Israel from the Palestinian town of al-Ram in the central West Bank, the governorate says.

#متابعة | استشهاد المواطن جهاد عمر قزمار من بلدة عزبة سلمان جنوب قلقيلية إثر سقوطه عن جدار الرام قرب القدس pic.twitter.com/qwozuyPTbt

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) December 28, 2025

He suffered a severe head wound and was pronounced dead in an Israeli hospital, and his body is still held by Israeli authorities, according to the governorate. The IDF does not immediately comment.

The governorate also shares a video in which an Israeli can be heard mocking a Palestinian who is stuck in barbed wire after falling from the barrier in al-Ram overnight. The governorate says the Palestinian was trying to enter Israel for work, but does not specify if he is Quzmar or a different man.

مستوطن يسخر من فلسطيني علق بالأسلاك الشائكة التي نصبها الاحتلال فوق جدار الفصل العنصري قرب بلدة الرام بالقدس، وذلك خلال محاولته الوصول إلى مكان عمله. pic.twitter.com/9IJFNlL5ma

— Mohammad Al-Zubeidi (@ZubeidiMohammad) December 28, 2025

The General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions — the largest Palestinian labor federation — says over 500,000 Palestinian laborers have lost their jobs in Israel since Israel sharply reduced the number of Palestinian work permits following the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023.

In that period, at least 44 Palestinians have been killed and thousands of others wounded, either by Israeli gunfire or falling from the separation wall, while trying to enter Israel illegally for work, according to the Palestinian labor federation.