In show of unity, Palestinians strike across West Bank, Gaza, Israel

Palestinians since 1948 have been spread across West Bank, parts of Israel and Gaza

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel stopped work for the day Tuesday, as did other Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and in Gaza, protesting violence against Arab Israelis, the unfolding Israeli military campaign targeting Hamas militants in Gaza and the looming eviction of several families from their homes in East Jerusalem.

Streets were deserted in Arab areas across Israel and the occupied territories, as shopkeepers shuttered stores along the waterfront in Jaffa, in central Israel; on the steep roads of Umm el-Fahm, an Arab town in northern Israel; and in West Bank cities such as Hebron, Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah.

Demonstrators gathered instead in central squares, waving Palestinian flags, listening to speeches and chanting against Israeli policies. Outside Ramallah, a group of Palestinians who had gathered separately from the protesters set fires on a major thoroughfare and later exchanged gunfire with Israeli soldiers, officials said.

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Since hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in 1948, they have been divided not only by geography but also by lived experience.

They were scattered across Gaza, the West Bank and the wider Middle East, as well as the state of Israel itself. Some struggled under differing forms of military occupation, while others were given Israeli citizenship — diluting their common identity.

But on Tuesday, they came together in a general strike to protest their shared treatment by Israel, in what many Palestinians described as a rare show of political unity.

Mustafa Barghouti, an independent politician who attended a rally in central Ramallah on Tuesday morning, said the protests constituted “a very significant day.”

“It reflects how Palestinians now have a unified struggle against the same system of apartheid,” he added.

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Israel fiercely rejects the Palestinians’ long-standing accusations of apartheid, a claim now taken up by a small but growing number of rights watchdogs, including Human Rights Watch last month.

The day ended in violence. A group of demonstrators gathered outside the city, close to an Israeli army base and a Jewish settlement, and blocked a major thoroughfare with burning tires.

By nightfall, three Palestinians had been fatally shot and 72 injured, Palestinian officials said. Two Israeli soldiers were lightly injured, according to the Israeli army.