Palestinians strike to protest Israel's assaults on Gaza

Palestinians staged a nationwide general strike across the occupied West Bank and Arab towns in Israel today to protest against the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Shops, business centers, civil institutions, banks, and universities shut their doors across the West Bank.

The general strike was called by Palestinian parties and unions as a “day of anger” over Israel’s military escalations in Gaza and Jerusalem.

“The strike is an expression of anger against this barbaric aggression by the Israeli occupation state and international silence toward [Israeli] aggression against our people in Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and Gaza,” Fahmi Shaheen, the coordinator of the national and Islamic forces in Hebron, told Anadolu Agency.

“This strike acquires a special importance because it is joined by all the Palestinian people across historic Palestine,” he said.

Meanwhile, shops and private institutions in Arab towns in Israel closed as part of the civil action.

On Sunday, activists called on Palestinian citizens of Israel to join the strike in protest of the occupation’s ongoing attacks against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Palestinian citizens of Israel constitute more than 20 per cent of the occupation state’s population of more than nine million.

Over recent days, right-wing Jewish mobs and the Israeli police have attacked Arab cities and towns in Israel. While in Gaza, at least 212 Palestinians have been killed, including 61 children and 36 women, and 1,400 others have been injured in Israeli attacks since 10 May, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Ten Israeli have also been killed.

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