Ramallah/Gaza: A general strike took place across the West Bank on Monday against ongoing Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip.
Shops, markets, schools, universities, banks, and public offices have been closed, and transportation lines have been stopped due to the strike called by Palestinian factions.
In the central West Bank city of Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets to condemn the Israeli “crimes” in Gaza, waving the Palestinian flag and chanting slogans demanding an end to the Israeli assaults as they marched through the streets of the city center.
The strike aims to condemn the Israeli assaults on the Palestinian enclave, which have “killed and destroyed Gaza, with American complicity and support,” and to urge the international community to fulfill its obligations, Issam Bakr, coordinator of the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces in Ramallah, told Xinhua.
Protests against Israel have also been staged outside the West Bank by those in solidarity with the Palestinians, Bakr said. According to the Palestinian official news agency WAFA, such protests were organized in Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
According to Gaza-based health authorities, 56 people were killed and 137 others injured in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities and injuries to 1,391 and 3,434, respectively, since Israel ended the January ceasefire and resumed strikes across Gaza on March 18.
The overall death toll in Gaza has reached 50,752, with 115,475 others injured since the very beginning of the Israeli military operations in the enclave on Oct. 7, 2023, the health authorities reported.
In addition, the Israeli strikes further strained Gaza’s health system. According to a statement by Gaza health authorities on Monday, 37 percent of medicines and 59 percent of medical supplies are out of stock in the strip.
It said vital departments in hospitals are running on generators, which are threatened with shutdown due to fuel and spare parts shortages, adding that over half of cancer and blood disease medications are at zero stock, putting patients’ lives at risk.
Meanwhile, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, warned on social media, “Two million people (in Gaza) are scarred for life with trauma and shock, battling with the invisible wounds of mental health.”
UNI XINHUA
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