Israeli police arrested 73 Palestinian men attempting to enter Israel by hiding in the back of a garbage truck at a checkpoint on Monday.
In distressing footage released by the police, dozens of men are exposed, crammed into the back of the garbage truck as the back is lifted up.
Police inspector Ital Almog told KAN News that they had received intelligence that the truck contained people hidden inside, and they had covertly followed it as it traveled along Route 5 toward the checkpoint. However, they were not prepared for the sight of so many men in such a disturbing situation.
“Dozens of illegal entrants are hiding, trying to infiltrate into Israel,” Almog explained. The term “illegal entrants” is commonly used to describe Palestinians entering Israel in search of work.
The driver, a 30-year-old man from Kfar Qassem, did not have a license to drive the vehicle, and police discovered that each man had paid NIS 1,000 (around $330) for the dubious favor.
“The driver, sitting alone in the cabin, does not cooperate. He doesn't even know how to open the back part,” relayed Almog. “
We were talking with him for something like two hours. At a certain point, I stop him and take him for a private conversation. He finally manages to open it, and when he opens the rear tailgate, we actually understand the scale of the event: 73 Illegal entrants found inside a garbage truck.”
The lengths to which these Palestinians went in search of work have highlighted the chronic financial desperation many are now in, with work permits severely curtailed following the Oct. 7 massacre.
“The garbage truck was full of trash, which posed a clear danger to their lives. They are, they are endangering themselves by the very fact that they are inside. There are toxic gases in there,” said Almog.
While Israel has legitimate security concerns, especially in the current climate, many Palestinians who lost jobs in Israel through no fault of their own have been unable to pay rent or cover basic necessities.
“The lack of work in the Palestinian Authority leads the unemployed to find original, creative ways to enter Israel.
We are dealing with this phenomenon by targeting the transporters, the providers of shelter, and the employers,” said Almog, adding that they had already made 1,800 other arrests just since the beginning of the war with Iran. “The security establishment is trying to fight a phenomenon that is only getting worse."
According to recent polls from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), 59% of Palestinians living in the West Bank believe the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre was “the right decision,” and some 32% support Hamas and the idea of armed struggle against Israel, making relaxed access into Israel problematic. Those figures also show that two-thirds of West Bank Palestinians are not supportive of Hamas at all, but the data present a dilemma.
However, the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) has recommended that finding safe ways to increase the number of work permits would not only alleviate the suffering of Palestinians but would also be critical for security reasons. Warning of imminent economic collapse and the security implications of the growing crisis, they advise:
“Israel can and should map out a selective and controlled policy for granting work permits, focusing on workers who present a minimal security risk, such as older, married workers with children, and those who are the primary breadwinners for their families.”
The extremities that these 73 men had gone to, ostensibly in search of work in Israel, are an indication of the increasingly dire situation many Palestinians find themselves in post Oct. 7.
“This is a foul story of the devaluation of human life,” police concluded.
