3,291 residents of the Gaza Strip who entered the State of Israel with a permit since 2016 have not returned to the Gaza Strip, contrary to the permit granted to them - this was revealed in response to a recent request for freedom of information.
The identities of those illegal residents are known to the defense establishment, but none of the authorities - neither the Coordinator of Government Operations in the Occupied Territories (nor the IDF), nor the GSS nor the police - monitor them or try to return them to the Gaza Strip.
According to the existing procedure today, entry permits into Israel are issued by the IDF after a GSS security diagnosis, but this is where their responsibility ends.
In response to a request submitted on behalf of the If You Will movement, the Public Prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor's Office, Captain Ortal Spin, stated that "there are no procedures or provisions regarding enforcement or supervision of Palestinians that violate the permit granted to them."
The response also stated that "there is an internal procedure for treating a resident who reported at the Erez crossing independently or was apprehended in Israel by the law enforcement forces. procedure.
Data from the IDF show that between 2018 and 2020, 86,133 applications for entry to Israel for the purpose of "visiting a prisoner" were approved for residents of Judea and Samaria, and during that period 2,884 applications for entry to Israel for "visiting a prisoner" were approved in the Gaza Strip. Judea and Samaria, and 105,910 residents of the Gaza Strip.
The data provided do not refer to the last year, but we will mention that last August Israel decided to allow the entry of about 1,000 "traders" from the Gaza Strip into Israel and about 350 businessmen for the first time in about a year and a half, due to what was explained as "security stability" in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, the quota has increased, and since October, 10,000 Palestinians from Gaza have been allowed to enter Israel.
The GSS expressed opposition to the move for a long time, but the top members of the defense establishment made a different decision in light of the assessment that this would contribute to security stability in the area.
In practice, the vast majority of those permit holders were not involved in hostile terrorist activity, but only recently did the GSS report that a Palestinian trader from the Gaza Strip, who entered Israel with a permit, was arrested and accused along with an Israeli citizen of gathering information for Hamas on Ashkelon Central Station. iron.
Alon Schwartzer, head of the policy and research division at the If You Will movement, said: "We have been warning for several years about the lack of an orderly procedure that does not monitor the return of residents of Judea and Samaria who have entry permits.
We will not allow a reality in which the Israeli government provides one-way tickets to Israel for those who may be a security threat.
"This is a complete gamble on the lives of Israeli citizens, and we call on the Israeli government to act as soon as possible to change the existing procedure."
The IDF responded: "The figure mentioned in your article refers to all Gaza residents who left from 2016 until today, and did not return to the Gaza Strip.
We emphasize that this is one percent of all permits issued during this period to Gazan residents for various purposes - including going abroad and going for medical treatment in the territories of Judea and Samaria. A security source added that most of the illegal residents are in the territories of the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria.
No response was received from the police.
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