Ramallah: Akram Mahmoud Al Huroub, 22, has been added to the list of Palestinian bread winning martyrs after he fell from the top of the Israeli segregation barrier while attempting to cross into Israel for work.
The young victim, from the village of Deir Samet of Hebron, reached Al Ram area near Ramallah in order to cross the segregation barrier, but lost his balance and fell from the top of the barrier and sustained crtical injuries.
Sources in Hebron told Gulf News that the victim was rushed to a Ramallah hospital by fellow labourers who were with him, but the serious nature of the young man’s injuries necessitated his referral to Al Maqased Charitable Hospital in Occupied Jerusalem.
The sources said that during the days the victim spent in the Jerusalem hospital he underwent several surgical procedures but nonetheless succumbed to his wounds. His body was handed to his family for burial and he was laid to rest on Thursday.
More than 30,000 Palestinian workers who do not hold Israeli work permits enter Israel to work. A large number of these Palestinians have died after either being killed by Israeli soldiers chasing them or by their Israeli employers as a way to avoid paying the workers.
During 2014, a total of 19 Palestinian workers died in mysterious circumstances which Israeli law enforcement authorities chose to not investigate. Since the beginning of this year, a total of 13 Palestinian workers have died on the job.
Because the workers are technically illegal, Palestinian authorities cannot issue probes into their deaths.
The vast majority of those who enter Israel for work without holding official Israeli permits are young Palestinians who do not meet the Israeli criteria to obtain permits which would allow them to enter Israel via one of the seven crossings around the West Bank. Israeli permit conditions stipulate a minimum age of 35 years, married and with children.
Increased unemployment in the West Bank has forced thousands of Palestinian youth to enter Israel illegally to work.
