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Palestinians within the West Bank on Sunday went on a normal strike to protest an Israeli army raid at a refugee camp a day earlier during which at the least 10 folks 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 warfare in opposition to Hamas in Gaza. Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assaults on Israel, lots of of Palestinians have been killed and detained in raids within the West Bank, 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 Bank, in line with the official Palestinian information company, Wafa, with retailers, faculties, universities and banks shuttered. Public transportation additionally got here to a standstill.
It was not the primary shutdown within the occupied West Bank — the place about 500,000 Israeli settlers reside 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 hundreds of labor permits that allowed Palestinians to work in Israel and squeezing the West Bank’s financial system.
And violence within the West Bank has sharply escalated in current months. Nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces there because the Israel-Hamas warfare began, in line with the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Deadly violence in opposition to Palestinians by Israeli settlers within the West Bank 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, in line with the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli army mentioned one among them had opened hearth at troopers at a army put up north of Hebron and the opposite had tried to stab them.
Later on Sunday morning, an Israeli man was barely injured in an explosion within the West Bank, in line with the Israeli emergency companies. Video footage shared by Israeli information retailers confirmed him kicking down a Palestinian flag on a pole in a subject close to a settlement. The flag appeared to have been booby-trapped.
Those incidents got here after the Israeli army’s hourslong raid within the Nur Shams refugee camp, within the northern a part of the West Bank, on Saturday. The army known as the raid a counterterrorism operation and mentioned the ten killed have been militants, a declare that might not be instantly verified.
However, the Palestinian Ministry mentioned that the Israeli operation in Nur Shams was liable for the deaths of at the least 14 folks, together with a 15-year-old boy. The Fatah party, 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 United States has known as on Israel to extend business engagement with the West Bank, arguing that doing so was vital for each Palestinians and Israelis. The warfare has additionally despatched shock waves by means of Israel’s financial system, which shrank almost 20 % within the fourth quarter of final yr.
