Gaza’s Workforce Crisis Amidst Israel War Displacement

As the Israel war casts a long shadow across the scorched earth, the consequences ripple through the lives of thousands of Palestinian workers uprooted from their daily rhythms. Caught in the crosshairs of conflict and survival, these individuals face the stark reality of lost employment as the once traversed borders, gateways to fields and worksites, clamp shut. This piece unfolds the narrative of those who formerly navigated the fine line between sustaining their families and the constant threat of chaos, a tightrope walk now cut short by the harrowing dance of war and peace.

This latest development is not an anomaly but a harrowing continuation of a history fraught with border closures and political strife. Gaza, a strip of land perpetually under the thumb of blockade and bombardment, has long been the stage for a complex dance of economic dependency and security crackdowns. The workers expelled are but recent characters in this enduring saga, where over 18,000 once crossed into Israel and the occupied West Bank, their day’s labor contributing to an economy from which they are repeatedly barred.

Traversing the Kerem Shalom passage, a conduit traditionally bustling with commerce now suffocated by the exodus of toiling souls, the ambiance is laden with the particulates of crushed aspirations and a palpable sense of defeat. Here, a young man with furrows in his brow etched deep by worry beyond his years tells of captivity and harsh handling—a narrative too familiar and one that echoes the United Nations’ grim apprehensions.

The shadow of the dividing barrier stretches out long and ominously, casting a pall over the land where individual heartbreaks spill out like the contents of an upturned basket—each story a thread in the frayed quilt of a wider human drama. The young man’s eyes, reflecting a wisdom borne of suffering, share silent tales of resilience, even as his voice falters with the weight of his ordeal.

In this enclave, the tales of those who return are often lost amid the tumult of geopolitical discourse, yet they remain the most poignant chronicles of the conflict. Theirs is a world transformed by separation and surveillance, where each dawn brings not promise but a renewed challenge to find fortitude amid the relentless cycles of despair. Yet, amid these trials, the spirit of adaptation prevails, a testament to the indomitable resolve etched into the very souls of those who navigate this landscape of perpetual uncertainty.

Israel’s reasoning for the mass expulsion, as cited by some officials, tethers directly to the savage chess game of intelligence and counterintelligence. They suggest that the workers, perhaps unwittingly, became the eyes of Hamas, feeding information that led to the calamitous attacks of 7 October. Yet, this narrative is not without its challenges. The heavy toll of over 1,400 killed in an unprecedented assault and a further 242 reportedly abducted by Hamas paints a scene where information flows through more covert and complex channels than the laborers tending fields.

It is this very assertion of linkage that calls for scrutiny—where the lines of cause and effect are drawn in haste on the geopolitical map, perhaps too conveniently aligning with broader objectives. Netanyahu’s stern vow to sever all ties with the Palestinian enclave carries the weight of political ambition, a move that may well serve the immediate tactical narrative but does little to address the underlying fractures that perpetuate this cycle of violence and reprisal.

As the UN’s human rights office voices its alarm over the detention of thousands without legal justification, the personal cost looms large. The expulsions are not just entries on a ledger of political maneuvers; they represent children denied sustenance, patients barred from hospitals, and workers stripped of dignity—lives constricted by policies and decisions made in distant offices.

The landscape of Gaza, scarred by aerial campaigns and ground offensives, is more than the backdrop of this human drama—it is an active participant. The blockade, tightened in response to the attacks, has transformed the region into an open-air prison of sorts, where the echoes of the past are trapped by the walls of the present.

As we look upon the scene at Kerem Shalom, with streams of men trudging back into the embrace of a war-torn home, the question that presses on the mind is one of direction. Will this expulsion serve as a prelude to further isolation, a tightening noose around the neck of Gaza? Or will it, in the unfathomable ways of history, become a catalyst for change, for reconsideration of a policy that leaves thousands in limbo?

In the land where the dust of workers’ feet settles over the ruins of what once was, the future remains uncertain, hanging in the balance as the international community watches, waits, and, all too often, whispers in hushed tones when the courage to speak is needed most. The plight of Gaza’s workers is a chapter in a book whose end we cannot yet discern, a narrative of displacement and defiance that challenges us to look beyond the headlines and see the faces, the human stories, at the heart of this ongoing tragedy.

As Israeli forces continue to intensify their cataclysmic assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, Amnesty International has documented unlawful Israeli attacks, including indiscriminate attacks, which caused mass civilian casualties and must be investigated as war crimes.

The organization spoke to survivors and eyewitnesses, analysed satellite imagery, and verified photos and videos to investigate air bombardments carried out by Israeli forces between 7 and 12 October, which caused horrific destruction, and in some cases wiped out entire families. Here the organization presents an in-depth analysis of its findings in five of these unlawful attacks. In each of these cases, Israeli attacks violated international humanitarian law, including by failing to take feasible precautions to spare civilians, or by carrying out indiscriminate attacks that failed to distinguish between civilians and military objectives, or by carrying out attacks that may have been directed against civilian objects.

“In their stated intent to use all means to destroy Hamas, Israeli forces have shown a shocking disregard for civilian lives. They have pulverized street after street of residential buildings killing civilians on a mass scale and destroying essential infrastructure, while new restrictions mean Gaza is fast running out of water, medicine, fuel and electricity. Testimonies from eyewitness and survivors highlighted, again and again, how Israeli attacks decimated Palestinian families, causing such destruction that surviving relatives have little but rubble to remember their loved ones by,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

“The five cases presented barely scratch the surface of the horror that Amnesty has documented and illustrate the devastating impact that Israel’s aerial bombardments are having on people in Gaza. For 16 years, Israel’s illegal blockade has made Gaza the world’s biggest open-air prison – the international community must act now to prevent it becoming a giant graveyard. We are calling on Israeli forces to immediately end unlawful attacks in Gaza and ensure that they take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and damage to civilian objects. Israel’s allies must immediately impose a comprehensive arms embargo given that serious violations under international law are being committed.”

Since 7 October Israeli forces have launched thousands of air bombardments in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 3,793 people, mostly civilians, including more than 1,500 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. Approximately 12,500 have been injured and more than 1,000 bodies are still trapped beneath the rubble.

In Israel, more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, have been killed and some 3,300 others were injured, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health after armed groups from the Gaza Strip launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on 7 October. They fired indiscriminate rockets and sent fighters into southern Israel who committed war crimes including deliberately killing civilians and hostage-taking. The Israeli military says that fighters also took more than 200 civilian hostages and military captives back to the Gaza Strip.

“Amnesty International is calling on Hamas and other armed groups to urgently release all civilian hostages, and to immediately stop firing indiscriminate rockets. There can be no justification for the deliberate killing of civilians under any circumstances,” said Agnès Callamard.

Hours after the attacks began, Israeli forces started their massive bombardment of Gaza. Since then, Hamas and other armed groups have also continued to fire indiscriminate rockets into civilian areas in Israel in attacks that must also be investigated as war crimes. Meanwhile in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, at least 79 Palestinians, including 20 children, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers amid a spike in excessive use of force by the Israeli army and an escalation in state-backed settler violence, which Amnesty International is also investigating.

Amnesty International is continuing to investigate dozens of attacks in Gaza. This output focuses on five unlawful attacks which struck residential buildings, a refugee camp, a family home and a public market. The Israeli army claims it only attacks military targets, but in a number of cases Amnesty International found no evidence of the presence of fighters or other military objectives in the vicinity at the time of the attacks. Amnesty International also found that the Israeli military failed to take all feasible precautions ahead of attacks including by not giving Palestinian civilians effective prior warnings – in some cases they did not warn civilians at all and in others they issued inadequate warnings.

“Our research points to damning evidence of war crimes in Israel’s bombing campaign that must be urgently investigated. Decades of impunity and injustice and the unprecedented level of death and destruction of the current offensive will only result in further violence and instability in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” said Agnès Callamard.

“It is vital that the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court urgently expedites its ongoing investigation into evidence of war crimes and other crimes under international law by all parties. Without justice and the dismantlement of Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians, there can be no end to the horrifying civilian suffering we are witnessing.”

The relentless bombardment of Gaza has brought unimaginable suffering to people who are already facing a dire humanitarian crisis. After 16 years under Israel’s illegal blockade, Gaza’s healthcare system is already close to ruin, and its economy is in tatters. Hospitals are collapsing, unable to cope with the sheer number of wounded people and desperately lacking in life-saving medication and equipment.

Amnesty International is calling on the international community to urge Israel to end its total siege, which has cut Gazans off from food, water, electricity and fuel and urgently allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. They must also press Israel to lift its longstanding blockade on Gaza which amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, is a war crime and is a key aspect of Israel’s system of apartheid. Finally, the Israeli authorities must rescind their “evacuation order” which may amount to forced displacement of the population.