AL-QUDS (Dispatches) –
Palestinians launched a rare strike in east Al-Quds Wednesday over a days-long operation by Zionist troops in a refugee camp after a soldier was shot dead.
Businesses were shuttered in the Old City and along the main commercial street of the city’s eastern sector, which is usually bustling with shoppers and traffic.
The strike follows the killing on Saturday of a Zionist soldier at a checkpoint near the Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp, which prompted a massive manhunt for the suspected attacker, who remains on the run.
Entrances to the refugee camp have been mostly shut, while the raids have affected schools and healthcare.
In Al-Quds’ Old City, Nawal Jodeh said her daughter lives in the camp with her family.
“When I talked to her, she said the situation is bad there,” the 50-year-old told AFP.
“I heard the sound of shooting and teargas canisters,” she added.
Heavily armed security personnel have clashed with Palestinians in the camp.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said the violence and extra checkpoints had prompted it to close its schools and healthcare centre in the camp.
“The situation is really tense there on the ground,” spokesman Kazem Abu Khalaf told AFP, adding that tons of uncollected garbage are piling up.
During a visit to the camp on Tuesday, Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi said the Zionist regime’s aggression amounted to “collective punishment”.
“Sick people are not able to get outside to be treated, bakeries are empty, some physicians and doctors and nurses were not able to get in,” he told AFP.
The strike across Palestinian neighborhoods of east Al-Quds came as thousands of Zionists gathered in the city to mark a week-long holiday.
Zionist troops have deployed reinforcements for the holiday amid a spike in violence against the Palestinians.
A second Zionist soldier was shot dead Tuesday in an attack near Nablus in the northern West Bank.
The regime’s military said Wednesday it had blocked roads leading to the city, where Palestinians were also observing the strike.
Zionist troops have launched near daily raids in the West Bank in recent months.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Zionist troops, including resistance fighters and civilians.
Four Palestinian teenagers have been shot dead in the West Bank since Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Additionally, a 12-year-old boy shot in an earlier Israeli raid died from his wounds on Monday.
The occupying regime seized the West Bank in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed east Al-Quds in a move never recognized by the international community.