Jerusalem: The Israeli construction industry has reportedly asked the government to allow companies to recruit 100,000 Indian workers to replace the 90,000 Palestinians whose work permits have been cancelled since the start of the war – following the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.

“Right now, we are negotiating with India. We are waiting for the decision of the Israeli government to approve that. And, we hope to engage 50,000 to 100,000 workers from India to be able to run the whole sector and bring it back to normal,” a Voice of America report from the West Bank quoted the vice-president of the Israel Builders Association, Haim Feiglin, as saying.

The minister of external affairs of India didn't respond to the report immediately. According to the report, Palestinians make up roughly 25 per cent of the workforce employed by the Israeli construction industry. “We are at war and the Palestinian workers, which are about 25 per cent of our human resources in the sector, are not coming, are not permitted to work in Israel,” Feiglin said.

About 10 per cent of the Palestinian workers are from Gaza — which is at the centre of the conflict —and the rest are from the West Bank.

In May, Israel signed a deal with India that will allow 42,000 Indians to work in Israel – especially in the construction sector, besides nursing.

"The ministers also signed agreements to allow the arrival of 42,000 Indian workers in the fields of construction and nursing," according to a Hebrew press statement from the Israeli foreign ministry.

The Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Temporary Employment of Workers in Specific Labour Market Sectors in Israel was initiated on May 9 during Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen’s India visit.

Thousands of Palestinian workers deported to Gaza
Last week, Israel deported thousands of Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip back to the besieged territory.

Some workers, streaming by foot through an Israeli crossing that had been sealed shut since Hamas unleashed its brutal attack on southern Israel on October 7, told of violent mistreatment by Israeli authorities in detention centres.

“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.

Al-Sajda was among the roughly 18,000 Palestinians from Gaza allowed to work in menial jobs in Israel. The permits have been coveted in Gaza, which has an unemployment rate approaching 50 per cent. Israel began issuing the permits in recent years, a measure it thought helped stabilise Gaza and moderate Hamas, despite a broader blockade aimed at weakening the Islamic militant group.

Late Thursday, Israel announced it was revoking the workers' permits and would deport them. Israel had said little about the workers since the October 7 attack, in which Hamas militants stormed across the border and killed some 1,400 people and kidnapped 240 others.

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