Palestinians within the West Financial institution on Sunday went on a normal strike to protest an Israeli army raid at a refugee camp a day earlier during which at the very least 10 individuals have been killed, in an episode that illustrated the persevering with unrest within the territory.
The raid was the newest operation in a sweeping financial and safety clampdown within the territory occupied by Israel, even because it prosecutes its struggle in opposition to Hamas in Gaza. For the reason that Hamas-led Oct. 7 assaults on Israel, a whole bunch of Palestinians have been killed and detained in raids within the West Financial institution, which Israeli officers describe as counterterrorism operations in opposition to Hamas and different armed teams.
Sunday’s strike “paralyzed all features of life” within the West Financial institution, based on the official Palestinian information company, Wafa, with retailers, colleges, universities and banks shuttered. Public transportation additionally got here to a standstill.
It was not the primary shutdown within the occupied West Financial institution — the place about 500,000 Israeli settlers stay alongside roughly 2.7 million Palestinians — as an act of protest in current months. The Israeli authorities have tightened restrictions within the territory since Oct. 7, canceling 1000’s of labor permits that allowed Palestinians to work in Israel and squeezing the West Financial institution’s economic system.
And violence within the West Financial institution has sharply escalated in current months. Almost 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces there because the Israel-Hamas struggle began, based on the Palestinian Ministry of Well being. Lethal violence in opposition to Palestinians by Israeli settlers within the West Financial institution has additionally reached file ranges since Oct. 7.
Early on Sunday, two Palestinian males of their late teenagers have been fatally shot by Israeli forces, based on the Palestinian Well being Ministry. The Israeli army stated considered one of them had opened fireplace at troopers at a army submit north of Hebron and the opposite had tried to stab them.
Afterward Sunday morning, an Israeli man was barely injured in an explosion within the West Financial institution, based on the Israeli emergency companies. Video footage shared by Israeli information shops confirmed him kicking down a Palestinian flag on a pole in a area close to a settlement. The flag appeared to have been booby-trapped.
These incidents got here after the Israeli army’s hourslong raid within the Nur Shams refugee camp, within the northern a part of the West Financial institution, on Saturday. The army known as the raid a counterterrorism operation and stated the ten killed have been militants, a declare that might not be instantly verified.
Nonetheless, the Palestinian Ministry stated that the Israeli operation in Nur Shams was accountable for the deaths of at the very least 14 individuals, together with a 15-year-old boy. The Fatah celebration, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, labeled the operation a “heinous” crime and known as on residents of the occupied territory to protest the raid.
The US has known as on Israel to extend industrial engagement with the West Financial institution, arguing that doing so was essential for each Palestinians and Israelis. The struggle has additionally despatched shock waves by way of Israel’s economic system, which shrank practically 20 p.c within the fourth quarter of final yr.
