Several hundred Gaza Strip laborers were denied entry into Israel on Thursday because they did not have the new magnetized identification cards issued by the Israeli authorities.
The Arab workers, who are employed in Israel, were turned back by security forces at the Erez checkpoint even though showing the cards is not supposed to be mandatory until Friday.
No explanation was given as to why the deadline was advanced. Some observers suggested that the security forces wanted to impress the Gaza residents that they mean business.
The head of the civil administration in Gaza, Brig. Gen. Arye Ramot, personally inspected the checkpoint Thursday morning and said that new ID cards were made necessary by a wave of assaults on Israeli citizens attributed to Arabs from the Gaza Strip.
The new computerized cards, Ramot said. “prevent those people who do not have a clean security or criminal record from entering Israel.”
He said 60,000 new cards have been issued and an additional 30,000 to 40,000 will be issued in the next few weeks.
But leaders of the Palestinian uprising say they have been seizing the new cards almost as fast as they are issued.
Ramot estimated that about 2,000 workers had their cards confiscated, and about half of them have been given replacements.
About 110,000 Gaza Arabs commute to jobs in Israel every day.
Leaflet No. 44 issued this week by the uprising committees urged Gaza Arabs to boycott their jobs in Israel for one week starting Friday.
Ramot said if there is a strike, Israel would win because the Gazans depend on their jobs for survival.
But some Palestinians contend they could live without wages for a month whereas Israeli factories would be forced to close in days without cheap Arab labor.
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