A GENERAL strike was held in Palestine’s West Bank yesterday as part of a worldwide strike in solidarity with Gaza, which has suffered the US-backed Israeli genocidal war for 66 days.
Businesses, schools and public facilities observed the strike and shut their doors, amid angry protests and clashes with the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in different flashpoint areas.
Palestinian resistance factions, which called for the strike, urged citizens to participate in clashes with the IOF across the occupied territories. Accordingly, citizens stopped work and public transport also came to a halt.
A large crowd demonstrated in Al-Manara Square in Ramallah, where a poster of those killed in Gaza celebrated their lives, saying: ‘We are not numbers’. Children decorated the canvas with messages of love to Gaza and drew Palestinian flags. There were chants of: ‘We will die so Palestine can live’.
There were pro-Hamas chants and others against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, calling on him to do more. People chanted: ‘Put the bullet in the barrel and fire on us, we are not afraid.’
There were air strikes throughout Sunday night across Gaza, concentrating in the central part, including the Maghazi and the Nuseirat refugee camps.
In Maghazi, 23 people were killed as the relentless strikes pounded residential blocks, trapping many people under the rubble. The dead and wounded were rushed to Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, which is already overrun by a large number of patients.
Marie-Aure Perreaut of Doctors Without Borders, speaking from the hospital said: ‘The healthcare system is completely collapsed at the moment. It is difficult for us to keep up with the constant influx of the wounded. On top of this, it’s extremely difficult for the colleagues to be coming through the ER because they are the ones who are being wounded. Just about an hour ago, one of our colleagues came to the ER badly injured together with his family. It is extremely traumatising.’
Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, said in a recorded statement on Sunday that the resistance group has documented the destruction of at least 180 tanks and armoured vehicles and the killing of dozens of Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip during the past 10 days.
He said the resistance in Gaza is steadfast, stressing that ‘what is coming for the invading occupation forces and Netanyahu’s criminal government is greater. The occupation continues its blind revenge on civilians and the destruction of infrastructure in a savage and heinous war, which is the only achievement the occupation’s leaders are boasting about.’
Israel has imprisoned at least 142 women and girls in its ground offensive into the Gaza Strip , the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said in a joint statement with the Palestinian Prisoners Society yesterday.
Some of the detainees were infants and elderly women. They are being held at the Damon and Hasharon prisons. The rights groups earlier denounced Israel’s policy of enforced disappearance of Gaza detainees.
The organisations said that testimonies collected from Palestinian prisoners who have recently been released from Israeli detention, specifically from Ofer Prison, and who were detained in sections close to where Palestinians from Gaza were held, said that ‘the Israeli forces and prison guards are committing horrific and atrocious crimes against them, in secret.’
The death toll from Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip has risen to over 17,997 victims, the Palestinian Health Ministry revealed on Sunday evening.