RAMALLAH: Shuttered storefronts lined empty streets in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Monday, as Palestinians held a general strike demanding an end to the Gaza war. "I walked through the city today and couldn't find a single place that was open," Fadi Saadi, a shopkeeper in Bethlehem, said. Shops, schools and most public administrative offices were closed across the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. A coalition of Palestinian political movements — including Fatah and Hamas members — called the strike to protest what they described as "the genocide and the ongoing massacre of our people". It called for the strike "in all the occupied Palestinian territories, in the refugee camps... and among those who support our cause".
Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza on March 18, ending nearly two months of ceasefire with Hamas. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed almost daily since Israel restarted its military offensive. "We close today about our family in Gaza, our children in Gaza," said Imad Salman, 68, who owns a souvenir shop in Jerusalem's Old City. "In Jerusalem, in the West Bank, we can't do something more than what we're doing here now," he said.
In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the usually bustling commercial Salaheddin street was empty. "This strike is in solidarity with Gaza and what is happening there, and the war being waged against the Palestinian people, whether by (US President Donald) Trump, (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu, the Israeli government, or the American government," said Ahmed, who did not want to his surname. "This war must stop, the killing and destruction must stop, and only peace should prevail -- peace, and nothing but peace." "This time, the strike is serious, and the population's commitment is significant because Israeli aggression now affects all Palestinian households, whether in the West Bank or Gaza," said Issam Baker, a community organiser in Ramallah. "We have seen total commitment in support of the strike today throughout the West Bank, which has not happened since October 7" 2023, when the Gaza war started, said a security source from the Palestinian Authority.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on a visit to Cairo on Monday that he was strongly opposed to any displacement of Palestinians or annexation in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. "We are firmly opposed to the displacement of populations and to any annexation of both Gaza and the West Bank," Macron said as he met with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. "This would be a violation of international law and a serious threat to the security of the entire region, including Israel," he said.
In January, US President Donald Trump floated a proposal to move Gazans out of the territory, suggesting that Egypt or Jordan could take them in. Both countries, along with other Arab allies, governments around the world and the Palestinians themselves, have flatly rejected the notion. Trump later appeared to backtrack on the proposal, saying he was "not forcing" his widely condemned plan.
Since the start of the Gaza war, violence has soared in the West Bank. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 918 Palestinians, including militants, in the territory since then, according to health ministry figures. Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 33 Israelis, including soldiers, over the same period, according to official figures.
Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency reported at least 12 people killed on Monday in Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory, where the war triggered by Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel entered its 19th month. The latest strikes, part of renewed military operations after a two-month truce, come with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump later on Monday, where the ongoing fighting is set to be on the agenda. An air strike hit a tent used by journalists in a makeshift displacement camp in the southern Gaza Strip, killing two people, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal. The Palestinian government media office said journalist Hilmi al-Faqaawi, who worked for a local news agency, was killed in the attack in the city of Khan Yunis.
Bassal said that nine others, all journalists, were wounded. — AFP
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