General strike shuts down West Bank over Israeli death penalty law

- Thousands rally in West Bank against the Israeli law

RAMALLAH, Palestine

A general strike largely shut down daily life across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in protest of an Israeli law allowing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners.

Shops, public and private institutions, banks, universities, and schools closed, while hospitals and bakeries remained open, according to an Anadolu correspondent.

Streets in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, appeared largely empty, with businesses shuttered.

The strike followed a call by the Fatah movement, which announced a day earlier a comprehensive shutdown to oppose the law.

Fatah said the strike was part of efforts to overturn the Israeli legislation, describing it as a dangerous escalation and a violation targeting Palestinians. The group also called for broader public mobilization and increased regional and international pressure to repeal the law.

Simultaneously, thousands marched in Ramallah on Wednesday to protest the law, following a rally organized by prisoner advocacy groups, including the Palestinian Prisoner Society, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and Addameer rights group in central Manara Square.

Demonstrators moved through several streets in Ramallah, chanting against Israeli policies and the death penalty law, while expressing support for detainees held in Israeli prisons, according to an Anadolu reporter.

Palestinian faction leaders and religious figures also joined the march, the reporter said.

Participants waved Palestinian flags and held solidarity banners during the protest

Israel’s Knesset approved the controversial bill on Monday. The legislation allows courts to impose the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of intentionally killing Israelis without requiring a prosecutor’s request and without unanimous judicial agreement. It also applies to military courts handling cases involving Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

According to the Commission of Detainees Affairs, 117 Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons could be subject to the law.

The legislation has drawn criticism within Israel. About 1,200 Israeli figures, including Nobel laureates, former military officials, and former Supreme Court judges, voiced strong opposition in February, calling it a “moral stain.”

More than 9,500 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons, including 350 children and 73 women, according to Palestinian figures. Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups say detainees face torture, starvation and medical neglect, leading to dozens of deaths.

Since October 2023, Israel has tightened measures against Palestinian detainees amid the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 72,000 people and wounded 172,000, most of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

* Writing by Lina Altawell in Istanbul.