'We were humiliated,' say Palestinian workers returning to Gaza from Israel

Israeli authorities returned to Gaza thousands of Palestinian labourers who were working in Israel when war broke out on 7 October. 

The labourers described being "humiliated" and "abused" by Israeli forces, who arbitrarily revoked their permits after the war, rounded them and held them in detention facilities. 

The Palestinian Authority's labour ministry estimated that around 4,500 workers from Gaza had gone missing earlier in the week. Israeli media said on Friday that 3,200 people returned to Gaza after Israeli authorities decided to send them back late on Thursday. 

Upon their return to Gaza, workers said they were detained and abused without anyone coming to their aid, including the Palestinian Authority and the International Red Cross.

"Young men the age of my children stripped us naked and urinated on us," one worker told local media on Friday. He said that the Palestinian Authority handed them over to Israeli authorities after they sought shelter in the West Bank. 

"The Palestinian Authority betrayed us, the whole world betrayed us."

Other workers told Reuters news agency they were ill-treated, while some still had plastic stickers carrying numbers around their legs when they crossed back to Gaza. 

"We used to serve them, work for them, in houses, in restaurants, and in markets in return for the lowest pay and despite that, we were humiliated," said Jamal Ismail, a worker from the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.