Palestinians strike and march against Israeli repression

On Feb. 23, 2023, a general strike organized by Palestinians spread throughout the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza to denounce to the world the massacre perpetrated by 150  Israeli soldiers in Nablus the previous day.  The siege resulted in the death of 11 Palestinians and the wounding of 120 others, including elderly people and children.

Shops, schools, universities, public institutions and banks were closed as part of the protests.  Many usually busy places were empty. 

The Israeli Defense Forces had stormed Nablus with armored vehicles and special forces, firing ammunition indiscriminately into large crowds. Their drones dropped tear gas, mixed with pepper spray everywhere, on workers and their children who were simply going about their daily lives, to school, workplaces and stores.

But there was immediate resistance.  A call went out by Palestinians attacked during Israel’s raid to take to the streets to protest at midnight on Feb. 24. . This call was answered by thousands in several cities and villages in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of those killed, shouting chants denouncing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and honoring the fighters and civilians who were murdered.  Resistance fighters shot off gunfire as they marched through Nablus.

Since the new year started, the Israeli military has killed 65 Palestinians, including 13 children, wrote Aljaneera on Feb. 24.  In January, IDF soldiers killed 10 Palestinians in a Jenin refugee camp. The military assault in Nablus was the third major raid this year under the new ultranationalist, expansionist government.  And there are nearly daily IDF raids on the Occupied West Bank.

Hebron, another city in the West Bank where Palestinians are constantly harassed and their homes raided by the IDF, is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians and a small population of Zionist settlers.  On the day of the funeral in Nablus, Palestinians were marking the 29rh anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre.  ]

On Feb. 24, 1994, an Israeli-American settler killed 29 Palestinians while they were worshiping in the Hebron mosque. Demonstrators marched through the city’s streets this year on Feb. 24, with signs reading, “Take the colonial settlers out of Hebron.”

With the horrific repression against the Palestinian people and the Zionists’ designs on their land, all progressives worldwide should echo their slogan: “From the river to the sea — Palestine will be free!”

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