Palestinians in West Bank declare general strike after Haniyeh assassination

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have declared a general strike and called for "angry" demonstrations in response to the assassination of the head of Hamas's political bureau Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday.

Palestinian factions condemned the assassination, which they said was part of Israel's "terrorism" and its "war of extermination, destruction and killing".

In a joint statement, they said Israel continued its aggression amid the international community's "failure" to stop the war on Gaza and hold Israel accountable for its crimes.

"This cowardly assassination will not break our people's will to resist and endure, but will increase our determination and insistence to continue holding on to our rights, constants, struggle, and resistance for freedom and independence," the factions said.

The strike covered all cities and towns in the West Bank, and Haniyeh was mourned via loudspeakers in many mosques across the West Bank, Anadolu reported.

Israeli officials have not so far claimed responsibility for the killing of Haniyeh, who had been in Tehran for the inauguration of the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and there has been no official comment from the Israeli government.

But few doubted that Haniyeh, the public face of Hamas who took the top job in 2017, was the latest in a string of Hamas leaders to have been killed by Israel.

"We woke up this morning to a tragedy for the Palestinian people," said Fawzi Nassar, a resident of the southern city of Hebron.

"He is not the first one they assassinated - there were many leaders in the past like Shiekh Ahmed Yassin and others, but that will not affect our steadfastness," he said, referring to the founder of Hamas who was killed by an Israeli helicopter gunship in 2004.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction is a political rival to Hamas, condemned the killing, which Fatah called a "heinous and cowardly act".

"His assassination will not affect the [Hamas] party because the party is not a new one," said Suheil Nasrelddin, a resident of Hebron, adding that Hamas had "a lot of leaders".

The West Bank has been in turmoil since Israel began its onslaught on Gaza on 7 October, Over 500 people have been killed in the occupied West Bank, with thousands more detained by Israel, while over 39,400 people, mostly women and children have been killed in Gaza.

"The Israeli crime of assassinating Ismael Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, will not break the Palestinian resistance or the Palestinian people's determination to achieve our freedom," said Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian politician who heads the Union Of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees.

"Of course, it will escalate the situation," he said. "And this is what Netanyahu wants, he knows that the end of this war is the end of his political career."

Agencies contributed to this report.