From job loss to loss of hope... Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers between the wall and hunger.

Since the beginning of this year, six workers holding Palestinian identity have been martyred as a result of assaults and pursuits by the occupation forces while entering or attempting to enter occupied Jerusalem. The latest was Salim Raji Al-Far (57 years old) from the town of Zababdeh in Jenin, who was martyred on October 15, 2025, after being struck on the head near the separation wall in the town of Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem. Earlier in the same month, Muhammad Khaldoun Jumaa from the town of Deir Al-Ghusun, north of Tulkarem, was martyred on October 6, after falling from the apartheid wall while trying to enter Jerusalem. Additionally, Sand Hantouli (25 years old) from the village of Silat Al-Dhahr in Jenin was martyred on September 15, 2025, after being shot in the thigh while attempting to enter Jerusalem through the Dahiyya area north of the city. As for Arafat Qadous from the village of Iraq Burin southwest of Nablus, he was martyred on May 27, 2025, after falling from the separation wall in the town of Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Maher Sarsour (59 years old) from the village of Sarta west of Salfit was martyred on March 15 during the pursuit of occupation forces of a number of workers near the Al-Ram wall during Ramadan. Furthermore, Raafat Hamad (35 years old) from the town of Silwad east of Ramallah was martyred on March 12, 2025, after falling from a height during the occupation's incursion into a construction workshop where he was working inside Jerusalem.
Since October 7, 2023, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers who were working inside the occupied Palestinian territories of 1948 have been living an unprecedented humanitarian and economic tragedy. The occupation authorities have closed the doors of work in their faces and revoked their permits, turning the lives of thousands of Palestinian families into a vortex of poverty and need, after they had formed a major economic lifeline for their families and the national economy alike.
About 180,000 Palestinian workers were employed in construction, agriculture, and services within "Israel," with most of them earning wages that exceed two or three times the average income of a worker in the West Bank. With the loss of those jobs, they lost their only source of livelihood, leading to a deterioration in the living conditions of their families who depend entirely on them.
In Palestinian cities and villages, the change is clearly noticeable: empty markets, families unable to pay loans, and children going to school without daily allowances, while mothers struggle to secure the minimum amount of food.
Desperation has driven many to risk their lives in attempts to enter "Israel" through openings in the apartheid wall or by jumping over it in areas like Al-Ram and northwest Jerusalem. These attempts have turned into tragic scenes, as dozens have been killed by Israeli army fire during their attempts to cross, while others have sustained serious injuries or have been arrested and pursued as if they were criminals.
Workers who have succeeded in reaching their workplaces are forced to hide in construction sites or spend the night in harsh conditions for fear of arrest, after the extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir launched a fierce racist campaign against them, reaching the point of issuing orders to consider Palestinian workers as "terrorists" and giving his forces the green light to shoot at them under the pretext of "preventing infiltration."
In light of this grim reality, sharp questions arise about the role of the Palestinian government in providing emergency economic solutions for these workers. Where are the employment projects promised to the citizens? And where have the industrial cities and economic clusters mentioned by successive governments in Jericho and the northern and southern West Bank disappeared?
Even today, no clear plans or productive projects have been presented that can absorb this massive number of skilled and experienced workers accumulated over decades in construction, industry, agriculture, and services.
The gap widens further when another question is raised: Why do rich Arab and Islamic countries not intervene to embrace these human resources? Is it not possible to open industrial or investment projects in the West Bank that could accommodate some of these workers? Or even to temporarily bring them to Gulf countries and Arab nations that suffer from a shortage of qualified labor in construction, building, and maintenance? These workers do not need charity, but rather a job opportunity that preserves their dignity and the dignity of their families.
The Palestinian worker today is trapped between the apartheid wall that deprives him of his livelihood and the absence of national and Arab economic policies that guarantee him a decent life. While some continue to risk their lives to cross the wall in search of a morsel of bread, their children continue to wait behind it, hoping that tomorrow will bring a new horizon.
Will the fate of hundreds