Israel has canceled 200 out of some 15,500 permits issued to Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to work in its territory after a laborer was accused of planning to carry out a bombing, the Shin Bet internal security agency said on Thursday.
The suspect, arrested on October 30, told interrogators relatives had recruited him from the militant group Islamic Jihad to plant a bomb on a bus in southern Israel.
Israel’s Shin Bet said the suspect had been indicted in an Israeli court. But it was not immediately clear if he had been assigned a lawyer or how he might plead to the charges.
The security service continued that among Israel’s responses was the voiding of around 200 permits of workers who have militant family members.
“The attempt by terror groups to exploit the jobs of workers in Israel in order to carry out attacks endangers the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Twitter.
Gantz, part of Israel’s centrist outgoing government, has championed expanding the allotment of entry permits in order to ease Gaza’s grinding poverty and stave off conflict.
“We are conducting an ongoing assessment of the situation, and if it appears that a trend is developing of recruiting workers from Gaza to carry out attacks, Israel will consider its steps in the context of the departure of workers from the Gaza Strip and other civilian relief,” Gantz continued.
This announcement comes after a double bombing in Yerushalayim on Wednesday, which killed an Israeli-Canadian 16-year-old yeshiva student and wounded at least a dozen other people. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. –i24 News
