Palestinians go on general strike across West Bank in solidarity with Gaza
Cities, towns and refugee camps across the occupied West Bank went on strike on Monday in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s relentless war on the enclave.
Shops, businesses, schools, private and public institutions have been shut down, with streets completely emptied out.
“I walked through the city today and couldn’t find a single place that was open,” Fadi Saadi, a shopkeeper in Bethlehem, told AFP.
Palestinian solidarity movements have called for a global day of strikes to take place on Monday, which coincides with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US.
Participants in the strike are demanding an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 50,700 Palestinians since October 2023.
Israel violated the ceasefire agreement in March and resumed its relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian groups called for a “global strike to amplify voices and spotlight the occupation’s horrific massacres and crimes in Gaza, and the systematic destruction aimed at displacing our people”.
The statement also urged actions to be taken to end the war “amid the international community’s failure to impose sanctions on the occupation (Israel) or hold its terrorist government accountable”.
Even occupied East Jerusalem’s typically bustling streets were empty.
“We close today for our family in Gaza, our children in Gaza,” Imad Salman, 68, who owns a souvenir shop in Jerusalem’s Old City, told AFP.
“In Jerusalem, in the West Bank, we can’t do something more than what we’re doing here now.”
Israeli forces have encircled the West Bank city of Nablus during the strike, sealing off all its entrances.
Local sources told Al Jazeera that gates and military checkpoints were set up to prevent movement to and from the city.
Protests and rallies took place in Palestinian cities as well as across the world.
Citizens in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and other places filled the streets with banners and chants in solidarity with Palestine.
In Lebanon, schools in the southern city of Saida were closed on Monday as part of the strike.
Israel’s war on Gaza has led the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, which has so far not been recognised by several member states, allowing the Israeli officials to travel.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 918 Palestinians since the start of the war on Gaza.
