Palestinian labor loss leaves hole for them and Israel
STORY: Just 25 workers now toil on this three-story building. Six months ago there were 125.
Some 200,000 Palestinians used to commute into Israel daily from the occupied West Bank, as well as 18,500 from Gaza.
But Israel sealed the border after the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
That left an economic hole on both sides .
For years, Mohammad Dabous crossed into Israel to work on building sites from his West Bank village, Nilin.
The loss of income has deprived workers like him - and their families - of wages several times what they'd bring in at home.
"We depended on working in Israel. Now with this closure, the worker has been destroyed, I was one of the people that suffered, I have two daughters in university, and a third one to follow soon."
For Israel, the Gaza conflict brought construction juddering to a halt.
Residential building fell by 95% late last year, contributing to an overall 19% slump in economic activity.
Israel is now fast-tracking recruitment of tens of thousands of foreign workers and building has bounced back somewhat.
A quota of 65,000 are authorized to come from countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.
Yehuda Morgenstern is Director General of the Construction and Housing Ministry:
"We want to bring workers faster, since we cannot place all our risks in one place, just like we say, we cannot only rely on local manpower. We need local workers too, we need Palestinian workers as well, we want contracting companies, union workers, and we do not want them all to be from one country."
A "limited pilot" for allowing in Palestinian workers back in will be discussed by the cabinet, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
Some Israeli security officials worry that the loss of earnings in the West Bank could be worsening instability there.
Dabous says Israel needs Palestinian workers.
“There is no one who can be a substitute for us, the Palestinian workers. Foreign workers will send the money abroad, as for us, our money stays in the country. That's aside from the language barrier and understanding the type of the work here."
If Palestinian workers are allowed back, they will undergo more scrutiny and even more onerous checks at border crossings than before, one Israeli security official told Reuters.
An International Labour Organization report this week said unemployment in the West Bank and Gaza is expected to rise above 50% and half a million jobs have already been lost during the conflict.
