A general strike paralyzed the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Monday, as the Israel Defense Force sent heavy reinforcements into the territories to prepare for trouble on Dec. 9, the second anniversary of the start of the intifada.
The shutdown was total. No shops or businesses were open anywhere, and Arab workers employed in Israel stayed away from their jobs.
The strike was called by the leadership of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, to protest the IDF’s destruction of the Black Panthers, a gang in Nablus alleged to have murdered at least 15 Arabs suspected of collaborating with the Israeli authorities.
The gang leader and four of his deputies were gunned down by the IDF in the Nablus casbah last Friday. Two others were wounded and three were captured. Scores of suspects were rounded up in house-to-house searches and thrown in jail over the weekend.
The IDF claimed it struck a major blow against the intifada. But the violence continued.
A 10-year-old Arab girl was killed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, when students leaving their school in the Shati refugee camp clashed with IDF troops. A military spokesman said a preliminary investigation showed that the girl participated in the disturbance.
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