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Israel Discretely Increases Entry Permits for Gaza Workers
(Al-Monitor) Shlomi Eldar - Without fanfare, Israel has coordinated with Hamas to increase the number of entry permits granted to Palestinians in Gaza. The additional 2,000 permits and another few thousand that Israel will hand out in the coming months are part of a pilot program being tested by security authorities. Maher Tabaa, head of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, told the Saudi al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper that "trader" permits were in fact being given to laborers who leave Gaza every morning to work on Israeli farms, returning at the end of the day. Prior to the First Intifada in 1987, thousands of Gaza Palestinians boarded hundreds of buses daily to work on Israeli farms, in industrial plants, construction and even in hospitals as orderlies. Paradoxically, laborers from Gaza will now be employed to rehabilitate the damage caused by the incendiary balloons.