RAMALLAH — Palestinians held a general strike on Thursday in solidarity with hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails on hunger strike for 11 days, with some officials calling it the largest in years.
Stores were closed and roads empty across the West Bank. In the city of Ramallah, several dozen people gathered at a tent set up in a central square where a protest march was to begin.
“This general strike is unprecedented in years,” said Khalil Rizeq of the Union of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce.
“All Palestinian industries, such as transportation, bakeries, stores, all of the private sector and commercial institutions are participating.”
The strike was called in all cities in the West Bank, with only doctors and students nearing graduation excluded.
Palestinian bus services were also on strike in East Jerusalem.
Oday Homaid, a 27-year-old engineer, arrived at Ramallah’s Yasser Arafat Square with other workers from his lift maintenance company to participate in the protest.
It was the “minimum that we can do for our prisoners,” he said.
Munther Karaja, a 42-year-old who had closed his pastry shop, said: “We can sacrifice one day for prisoners who have given years of their lives.”
Palestinian officials say some 1,500 prisoners are participating in the hunger strike that began on April 17, with detainees ingesting only water and salt.
Israeli authorities have put the number at around 1,200.
Some 6,500 Palestinians are currently detained by Israel for a range of terror offenses and crimes.
Around 500 are being held under Israel’s system of administrative detention, which allows for imprisonment without charge.
Palestinian prisoners have mounted repeated hunger strikes, but rarely on such a scale.
The hunger strike is being led by Palestinian leader and prominent prisoner Marwan Barghouti, a convicted terrorist serving five life sentences over his role in deadly attacks during the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, of 2000 to 2005.
The prisoners have issued demands ranging from better medical care to phone access.
A series of demonstrations have been held in the West Bank in support of the prisoners, occasionally resulting in clashes with Israeli forces.
הדברים החיוביים מהשביתה הכללית בגדה: כיכר מנארה רמאללה ללא פקקים!!! pic.twitter.com/Yqw9XM4z8k
— avi issacharoff (@issacharoff) April 27, 2017
Barghouti is popular among Palestinians, with polls suggesting he could win the Palestinian presidency.
A Palestinian NGO said this week that Barghouti’s health had seriously declined and that he was refusing medical treatment.
Palestinian leaders have denounced Israel’s refusal to negotiate with the hunger strikers, warning of a “new intifada” if any of them die.