An estimated 1,500 farmers from around Israel blocked the Arava Highway at the Paran Junction between the Dead Sea and Eilat for a few hours on Sunday in protest of the national government's refusal to allow them to hire 600 foreign workers to help with the autumn harvest.

The Oz unit of the Immigration Ministry - which rounds up undocumented workers for deportation - took advantage of the absence of farmers and raided the Arava community of Chatzeva. They found nothing there.