QALQILYA, Monday, March 30, 2020 (WAFA) - Israeli forces today opened a few metal gates, to the south of the occupied West Bank district of Qalqilia, in order for Palestinians working in Israel to return home.

Mayor of Qalqilia Rafi‘ Rawajbah told WAFA that Israeli forces opened the military gates of the apartheid wall in order to allow Palestinian workers to return from their workplaces inside Israel to their homes.

He explained that the move is designed to sabotage the precautionary measures taken by Palestinian security forces and the Ministry of Health to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the occupied territories, including detection of suspected coronavirus cases among workers and forcing them into 14-day home quarantine.

He called on all workers returning from Israel to abide by the government‘s instructions.

Palestinian workers are returning back to their homes in the occupied West Bank after several cases of sick workers being dumped at checkpoints along the Green Line sparked outrage among Palestinians. 

Over the past few days, a number of Palestinian workers who work inside Israel have been dropped off at checkpoints between Israel and the northern West Bank after displaying symptoms of the novel coronavirus - also known as Covid-19. 

This has compelled the Palestinian government to order all Palestinian workers in Israel to come back to the West Bank and enter a mandatory 14-day quarantine or risk facing unspecified penalties. 

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has announced that Palestinians were now also barred from working in illegal Israeli colonial settlements in the occupied territory.

The move came just days after thousands of workers hurried into Israel on the promise that they would be given proper lodging by their employers and would be allowed to stay within Israeli overnight in order to avoid the spread of the virus in the West Bank.

A woman in her 60s from Biddu town, northwest of Jerusalem, died a day after she tested positive for the virus. She contracted the virus from her sons who work in Israel.

K.T./ K.F.