Palestinian factions called for a general strike in the occupied West Bank and urged Palestinians to confront Israeli troops on Tuesday after a Palestinian prisoner died of lung cancer.
Nasser Abu Hamid, 50, a former leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, was sentenced to seven life sentences in 2002 for involvement in the deaths of seven Israelis during the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising against Israel's occupation in the early 2000s. Palestinian officials had called for his release as his health deteriorated in recent months.
Abu Hamid's death came as one of the deadliest years in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in recent decades draws to a close, with the prospects of negotiating a two-state solution and ending Israel's open-ended military rule over the Palestinians increasingly remote.