In the last 24 hours Border Guard forces apprehended 381 Palestinians who resided in Israel illegally. Four Israelis were detained on suspicion of driving the Palestinian into the country; eight others were arrested on suspicion of employing the illegal residents, while another Israeli is suspected of housing them.
The suspects were taken in for questioning by security forces.
More than 1,000 illegal residents were caught since the beginning of the week.
On Tuesday, 240 Palestinians were detained for staying illegally in a deserted building in Petach Tikva’s Kiryat Aryeh industrial zone. Following their interrogation the Palestinians were transferred to the Palestinian Authority.
Border Guard officers were stunned by the illegal residents’ harsh living conditions.
“The conditions were sub-human,” Moshe Shapira, a spokesman for the Border Guard, said. “The structure was filthy, with bottles full of urine everywhere; the place reeked.”
“The Palestinians who had occupied the building went to work in Tel Aviv and in other central Israel cities,” Shapira said. “It was later revealed that the entry status of three of the illegal residents was limited, and they were transferred to a military courthouse. The rest were put in buses and taken back to the PA through IDF checkpoints.”
Efrat Weiss contributed to the report