Israel’s government announced late Thursday night that it would deport all workers from Gaza who were on its territory when Hamas launched an attack on areas of Israeli territory on October 7 as it “cuts all ties” with enclave, where the Palestinian Islamist movement rules.

“Workers from Gaza who were in Israel on the day the war started will be sent back,” the security cabinet said in a statement.

More generally, “Israel is cutting all ties with Gaza, there will be no more Palestinian workers” from the enclave in the country, he added.

About 18,500 Gazans had work permits in Israel at the time the war broke out, according to COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s body responsible for political affairs in the Palestinian Territories.

When contacted by AFP, COGAT was unable to determine exactly how many workers from Gaza were in Israel on the day the war began. Israeli media estimate that there were as many as 4,000.

The Gaza Strip has been under relentless shelling by the Israeli military in retaliation for Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, on October 7, according to Israeli officials.

Israeli strikes on the Palestinian enclave have killed more than 9,000 people, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and UN experts warned yesterday that the Palestinian population is now at “serious risk” of suffering “genocide ».