RAMALLAH — A Palestinian construction worker was stabbed to death in the Israeli city of Raisin Letzion early Friday, a report said. The Israel's Radio said that the 25-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank was evacuated to the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center after sustaining knife wounds to the chest. He succumbed to his wounds while on the operating table. The report said that the Israeli police arrested an Israeli resident at the construction site for questioning. The details are unclear, the report said. The police said that the Palestinian man was illegally working in Israel. However, the police believe that at around 2 a.m. the Palestinian was involved in a fight that erupted near the construction site he was working at in the western part of the city. The number of Palestinian workers Israel gives work permits has drastically dropped following the start of the Second Intifada in 2000 and the building of the separation wall. According to Palestinian statistics, around 25,000 Palestinians work legally in Israel. The estimated 30,000 Palestinians enter Israel for work illegally. The number of Palestinian workers in Israel reached 118,000 on the eve of Second Intifada.Israel says some 32,000 Palestinians earn their living inside the country and another 27,750 Palestinians work for Israeli employers in the West Bank. Hundreds of unemployed Palestinian workers risk their lives by creeping into Israel to look for jobs in the labor market as the rate of joblessness in the Palestinian territory hits 24.9 percent.
