Gaza workers arrested, humiliated with 'street parade' in Nazareth by Israeli police

Israeli forces arrested at least 42 Palestinian workers, most of them from the war-battered Gaza Strip, in the city of Nazareth on Tuesday, accusing them of residing in the country without a valid work permit.

Images shared by Palestinian media and activists showed the workers rounded up and handcuffed, with many on their knees after they were arrested.

Videos also circulated online showing the Israeli forces "parading" the Palestinians in the streets of the city, in what activists have described as a "terror parade" aimed at humiliating them.

Nazareth, located within Israel's 1948 borders, is home to a large Muslim and Christian Palestinian population.

One activist said the workers being "paraded" in Nazareth was aimed at "forcing the city’s native Palestinians to watch the dehumanisation of their own men, giving them a glimpse to their own possible future".

Following their arrest, Israeli police said this occurred "amid a joint operation by the Border Police and the Northern District Police," as cited by The New Arab's affiliate, Arab48.

The Israeli police in a statement said the Palestinian workers were arrested following raids on several apartment buildings in the city. They added that those detained were all transferred for further investigation at Nazareth's police station.

"Large quantities of goods" were also seized, the police claimed.

This comes amid an uptick of arrests and abuse against Palestinian workers from the West Bank and Gaza in Israel, since Israel began its military onslaught on the Gaza Strip 22 months ago.

Following Hamas’s attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, Israeli forces revoked all permits for Gazan workers, rendering them illegal in the country, in a move described as "collective punishment" by rights groups.

Thousands of such workers were arrested and held in detention centres without any legal basis, while Israel refused to disclose their identities and whereabouts.

Scores more who had their permits taken away from them were left stranded in the occupied West Bank following Israel’s move, leaving them vulnerable to Israeli arrest.

Human Rights Watch said such workers were subjected to 'inhumane and degrading treatment" while in detention.

After releasing some of the workers, Israel sent them back to Gaza, making them walk on foot to the war-hit enclave as Israeli army bombs rained down on the territory.

Israeli police have reportedly intensified their search for Palestinian workers in the pre-1948 borders, seeking to detain them in raids across Arab-majority towns.

Palestinian workers have often aimed to enter the pre-1948 borders in search for work due to the lack of employment opportunities and rising poverty levels in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They are often violently detained, and some have been killed by Israeli forces.