Ramallah occupied the West Bank – Early Sunday morning, Saher thought he had a rare opportunity. Expecting the Israeli forces to be distracted by the benefits of Iranian rocket attacks, it began to climb the separation wall of Israel.
He needed about 15 minutes to get to the other side. But while riding, an Israeli patrol suddenly appeared.
“I panicked, let go of the rope and fell.”
It fell from the top of the wall – a concrete barrier, in certain places of 8 meters (26 feet) high, which crosses the occupied West Bank. Saher fell 4 meters (13 feet).
“For a while, I thought I died,” recalls the 26 -year -old player. “I heard voices in Hebrew. Then the pain started to crawl in my body. “
A team of Palestinian ambulance finally transported saber to Ramallah hospital, where it was diagnosed with several rib fractures and equipped with a splint.
The Palestinian construction worker was trying to cross Israel to reach his work in the city of Rishon Lezion. He spoke to Tel Aviv Tribune under cover of anonymity, fearing reprisals for trying to enter Israel without authorization.
Before the War of Israel against Gaza began as a result of the October 7 attack on Israel, around 390,000 Palestinian workers relied on jobs in Israeli territory. But after the start of the war, the Israeli authorities revoked their work permits and forced them to leave. While the war is moving away and in the midst of Israeli military actions in occupied West Bank, some Palestinians – mainly in the construction and hotel sectors – have risked their lives to return to Israel for temporary work.
With closed crossing points and less smugglers ready to take people by car since October 2023, many have only one perilous option: to evolve the wall. This option has now become deadly because Israel has used stricter security in the middle of its conflict with Iran and the climbing of regional tensions. The wall is now strongly watched by drones, sensors and military patrols.
‘Two fires’
With unemployment in the occupied West Bank at critical levels, despair pushes people to climb the wall.
“Oh my God, let me die and relieve myself of this torment,” said Ahed Rizk, 29, when he was lying on a bed at Ramallah hospital. The recently married construction worker was in anxiety, and not only physically: he is unable to support his family.
Rizk, which is a village near Ramallah, lost the use of both legs after falling from the separation wall during an attempt to enter Israel in mid-June. One of his legs is now paralyzed; The other was broken in the fall.
He underwent a six -hour surgery after falling at a height of about 5 meters (16 feet). The rope he had climbed under his weight of 140 kg (309 pounds).
“It was not my first entry for work,” he said. “But it was the most dangerous. I went with the smugglers and paid costs, but when the war started, chaos spread. There were no vehicles and the soldiers were everywhere.
“I knew I was caught between two fires,” he added, referring to the risk of being killed by trying to enter Israel and the difficulties of not being able to work to support his family.
Rizk said dozens of workers had been gathered near the wall between the city of Ar-Ram and occupied East Jerusalem. Without a scale high enough to reach the top of the wall, they used a shorter scale and a rope tied on the other side. But as Rizk climbed, the broken rope.
“I landed on another young man who climbed. He had bruises. I lost both legs. The others went to work. My cousin ran when the (Israeli) army approached. I was left alone. ”
‘No choice’
Shaher Saad, the secretary general of the General Federation of Palestinian Unions (PGFTU), says that the Palestinians have been forced to attempt dangerous level passages for years.
“Decades of high unemployment have left thousands of people without choice,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
But since the start of the war in Gaza, the crossings have become fatal, said Saad. The Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces or fell to death.
At least 35 Palestinian workers died while trying to cross Israel to work in 2025, Saad said. We do not know how many of them have been killed and how much died after the fall.
SAAD attributes the deaths of the tightened restrictions of Israel, which prevent workers from accessing authorized employment roads.
Conditions on Israeli working sites are often poor, he added. “Most sites lack basic safety standards. Workers are not protective equipment.
Deepen social marginalization
Israel’s strategy by restrictions on movement and military actions is to exacerbate inequalities between Israelis and the Palestinians, said Sari Orabi, an independent political analyst based in Ramallah.
“This imposes restrictions on movement and access to resources, forcing civilians to choose between hunger and physical danger,” Orabi told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“This policy of geographic division and military control deepens social marginalization and increases dependence on aid. It promotes a state of helplessness and poverty. “
In the village of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, Otham al-Khawaja, a 37-year-old father, described how, while he was trying to climb the wall in March, Israeli forces opened fire. The tile per job has fallen, broke the two legs, but believes that it would have been shot if it had not been fallen.
He had put the wall on the scale several times before that because he feared that he could not provide for his family. “Fear sometimes obliges judgment,” he thought.
Al-Khawaja has undergone surgery to insert metallic stems into his legs. After three months of treatment, he was able to walk again, but not as before.
“God wrote to me a new life,” he said, grateful to have survived.
“You will never appreciate life until you are in the face of death. Then you learn to accept everything that happens to you. ”
This play was published in collaboration with EGAB.
