Gaza 3 years on: The unfinished fight for Palestinian workers
Hossam el-Hamalawy writes in The New Arab on 8 October 2026:
Three years after Israel began its genocide in Gaza, the fate of Palestinian workers detained after 7 October remains unclear, though their odyssey of humiliation, torture, and, on occasion, murder is beyond doubt and is mostly documented by their Israeli tormentors on social media and aired live by the far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Gazans who had crossed the Green Line desperate to earn a living, mostly in blue-collar jobs, were stripped of their permits, rounded up, and held without contact with lawyers or families. Their treatment should push one to wonder what international trade unions did when fellow workers in this part of the world were imprisoned and abused.
Israel closed the crossings and revoked Gazan workers’ permits, turning people previously authorised to work into supposed illegal residents. Thousands were detained in Israel and the occupied West Bank. On 3 November 2023, more than 3,000 were released into Gaza, where bombardment continued. Release offered no guarantee of safety.
Workers described, in testimonies published by Human Rights Watch in January 2024, beatings, electric shocks, humiliation, and deprivation of food and water. The rights watchdog also independently documented mass detention without contact with the outside world.
International allies
Warnings of the ongoing abuse were already coming out earlier. On 11 October 2023, the Palestinian Democracy and Workers’ Rights Centre denounced violence against Gazan workers. On 25 October, it demanded their immediate release and appealed to the international labour movement. The workers’ predicament was already being placed before their supposed international allies.