WEST BANK, (PIC)
A general strike prevailed on Wednesday across the occupied West Bank and its refugee camps in condemnation of the assassination of deputy chief of Hamas Political Bureau Saleh Al-Aruri in Lebanon on Tuesday evening, amid calls for escalating activism and confrontation with Israeli occupation forces (IOF).
The youth movement in the West Bank has called on Palestinian masses to participate in performing absentee prayers to Sheikh Saleh Al-Aruri in city centers before holding massive rallies and heading to confrontation flashpoints.
Shops, banks, commercial facilities and public institutions were shut, while transport activity has been disrupted.
Palestinian parties and factions had called for joint action as well as protest rallies, holding Israel fully responsible for Al-Aruri’s assassination.
Immediately after the assassination of Al-Aruri had been announced, hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in Nablus, Jenin, and Ramallah, especially in his hometown Arura, chanting slogans mourning the Hamas senior official and urging the resistance for an immediate response.
In Tubas and Tulkarem, massive protests roamed the streets with the participation of all Palestinian factions, pointing to the national consensus on refusing the assassination of Al-Aruri who exerted great efforts for uniting the Palestinian people.
Saleh Al-Arouri, 57, was a founding member of the armed wing of Hamas in the West Bank. He spent 15 years in Israeli prisons before being released in 2010 and deported to Syria.
On October 9, 2017, Hamas Movement announced the election of Al-Aruri as deputy head of the Movement’s political bureau.
On Tuesday evening, an Israeli drone killed the senior Hamas official in Beirut along with two commanders of Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
