RAMALLAH, Palestine 

Palestinians staged a nationwide general strike across the occupied West Bank and Arab towns in Israel on Tuesday to protest the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Shops, business centers, civil institutions, banks, and universities shut their doors across the West Bank, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter.

The general strike was called by Palestinian parties and unions as a “day of anger” over Israel’s military escalations in Gaza and Jerusalem.

“The strike is an expression of anger against this barbaric aggression by the Israeli occupation state and international silence toward [Israeli] aggression against our people in Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and Gaza,” Fahmi Shaheen, the coordinator of the national and Islamic forces in Hebron, told Anadolu Agency.

“This strike acquires a special importance because it is joined by all the Palestinian people across historic Palestine,” he said.

Meanwhile, shops and private institutions in Arab towns in Israel closed down as part of the general strike.

On Sunday, activists called on Arab Israelis to join the strike in protest of the ongoing Israeli attacks against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Arab citizens constitute more than 20 percent of Israel's population of more than 9 million.

Arab cities and towns in Israel have witnessed clashes between Arab citizens and Israeli police, which started when police violently dispersed demonstrations against Israeli attacks in Gaza and Jerusalem.

At least 212 Palestinians have been killed, including 61 children and 36 women, and 1,400 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since May 10, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Ten Israeli have also been killed in Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

The recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli assaults on worshippers in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara