New Delhi, April 1 -- Hundreds of protesters took to the streets across the embattled Palestinian territories on Tuesday, a day after Israel's parliament passed a measure establishing the death penalty by hanging for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis.

Palestinians young and old held sit-ins and marches in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the territory where the new law is most sweeping. The Fatah political party has called a general strike in the northern part of the West Bank for Wednesday.

The legislation orders West Bank military courts - which try only Palestinians - to make the death penalty the default sentence for those convicted, except in special circumstances.

"Time is running out and silence is deadly," read the si...