Over 200K Palestinians who worked in Israel remain at home two months into war — official
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Over 200,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip are now entering their third month without working in Israel, as the IDF maintains a partial lockdown over the territories imposed on October 7, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
Some 150,000 Palestinians from the West Bank had permits to enter Israel for work before the war.
An estimated 20,000 to 40,000 more Palestinians from the West Bank were entering illegally for work in what Israel allowed to maintain critical industries such as construction.
Over 17,000 Palestinians from Gaza also had permits to work legally in Israel.
The overwhelming majority of those Palestinians have remained at home since, as Israel has taken steps to disconnect from Gaza while also maintaining significant curbs on movement in the West Bank it says are critical for maintaining security after the October 7 Hamas massacre.
A second source familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel that Israel began allowing roughly 8,000 Palestinians from the West Bank to return to work in recent weeks.
This minority serves in industries that provide essential services, such as sanitation, health services and hospitality, the source says.
The vast majority of these 8,000 Palestinians work in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, while those with jobs in the Green Line have largely been unable to return.
The head of the Yesha council of settler mayors Shlomo Ne’eman penned a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week urging him not to allow the Palestinian workers back into the settlements, referring to them as a security threat to residents.
The letter makes no mention of the fact that nearly 8,000 Palestinian workers are already back in the settlements.
Netanyahu was asked about the issue during a press conference this week during which he indicated that the security establishment is pushing for Israel to gradually allow the workers to return, given that mass unemployment in the West Bank risks destabilizing the territory further.
He said the matter would be brought before the security cabinet for debate before any decision was made.
The next day, the security cabinet convened but no decision was made on the matter so the Palestinian workers will remain home for the foreseeable future.
This means over $350 million in lost revenue for the West Bank economy each month.
The crisis is compounded due to the monthly tax revenues that the PA hasn’t received from Israel since the war started. Israel decided to deduct some $275 million from the funds that belong to Ramallah, leading the PA to refuse to accept any of the revenues, which make up over 60% of its budget.
Thousands of PA employees have not been receiving their salaries as a result.
