Israel has deported thousands of workers to the besieged Gaza Strip, capping what many described as harrowing weeks trapped in legal limbo since their detention when the Israel-Hamas war erupted.
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“We sacrificed and they treated us like livestock over there,” one of the workers, Wael al-Sajda, said from the border, pointing to his ankle fitted with an identification bracelet. The Warsh Agha family had last heard from Mansour on Oct. 7. They eventually learned he had been scooped up at the Qalandiya checkpoint on the edge of Jerusalem, joining other workers in an attempt to flee to the West Bank as the military shut down the crossings.
The ailing 61-year-old farmer, Warsh Agha, was released in bad shape and later died, laborers told his relatives in the northern city of Beit Lahiya. His body bore signs of severe beating, said his nephew, but hospitals in Gaza were too overwhelmed with the war-wounded to perform an autopsy or issue a medical report, his family said.
The scope of Israel's round-up remains unclear. As many as 10,000 deported Palestinians crossed back into Gaza Friday, said Wael Abu Omar, the spokesperson of Gaza's border crossings. Relieved families showered them with kisses at the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southern Gaza. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office and Defense Ministry declined to provide an exact figure.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a classified security issue, said there were no indications at this point that the workers had any role assisting Hamas in its onslaught.
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