RAMALLAH, Palestine 

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

Shops, public and private institutions, banks, universities, and schools closed, while hospitals and bakeries remained open. 

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 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. 

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 officials, who allege detainees face abuse, starvation and medical neglect.

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

* Writing by Lina Altawell in Istanbul.