Palestinians fear workers returning from Israel will infect them
Palestinian officials have expressed concern the number of coronavirus cases among Palestinians could increase when tens of thousands of workers return to their homes from Israel with the start of Passover this week.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said on Friday that the next two weeks will be critical in terms of controlling the spread of coronavirus as 45,000 Palestinian workers in Israel will return during Passover.
Shtayyeh said the workers will be required to enter into a 14-day quarantine upon their return to their homes in the West Bank. “It’s mandatory and not optional,” he cautioned.
Shtayyeh said the PA is “exerting
efforts to arrange for the return of the workers with the Israeli side and to take the necessary health measures.”
He said most of the new Palestinian confirmed cases are among workers in Israel, adding 41 cases have been detected among 500 workers at a poultry plant in the Atarot Industrial Zone in northern Jerusalem.
“Israel should assume its responsibilities, as the occupying power, toward the Palestinian workers,” Shtayyeh said. The PA, he added, has a joint medical committee with Israel that is regularly monitoring the situation in light of the outbreak.
On Saturday, the PA announced 22 more Palestinians had tested positive for the virus, raising the total number of infected patients to 216. Some of the new ones also worked at an Israeli poultry factory in Lod, said Dr. Kamal Sharkha, who serves as director-general for primary health care in the PA Ministry of Health.
Also Friday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced the extension of the state of emergency in the PA-controlled territories for another 30 days. The decision means all educational institutions and border crossings will remain closed, and movement between Palestinian communities will remain suspended.
PA security officers and health officials have been deployed at the border crossings between the West Bank and Israel to collect the workers returning from Israel.
A PA security official expressed concern that many of the workers would try to return to their homes without passing through Palestinian security checkpoints. The official warned Palestinians against using their vehicles to smuggle the workers back to their homes.
In a related development, the PLO claimed on Saturday that settlements were centers for spreading coronavirus to Palestinian villages and cities.
The claim was made by the PLO’s National Bureau for Defending Land in its weekly report, titled, “Settlements have become centers for transmitting coronavirus to Palestinian villages and cities in the West Bank.”
The report defended the PA government’s appeal to Palestinians to stop working in settlements.