Israeli border police have started rounding up and expelling around 1,000 Palestinians caught working illegally in Israel, a police spokesman said Tuesday, August 7. More than a dozen Palestinians were kept in custody, the spokesman said, without specifying why. The others were being deported to the West Bank, while proceedings are underway against some 30 Israelis employing the illegal workers, he added.
A similar operation was carried out on July 23, which rounded up 1,100 Palestinians illegally employed in Israel. Before the start of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, around 130,000 Palestinians worked in Israel, about half of them without permits.
Most of them now find themselves unemployed back in the Palestinian territories, where Israeli security forces have slapped tight restrictions on travel to Israel since the start of the uprising in late September.
The Palestinian economy has suffered to the tune of $3.4 million a day from the closure of the frontiers, according to United Nations estimates. ― (AFP, Jerusalem)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
