Israel and Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip exchanged gunfire overnight after a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement died in Israeli custody on the 87th day of a hunger strike.
The Israeli military said more than 100 rockets and mortar bombs were fired into Gaza from Gaza on Tuesday, in several bursts. Most of them were intercepted or dropped in open areas. Israeli medics said that at least two penetrated Israeli air defenses and injured three foreign workers in the southern city of Sderot.
During the night, the Israeli army responded with air strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip, including military sites, training facilities, and weapons storage and manufacturing sites. Israel said they were linked to the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the besieged coastal enclave. The cease-fire took place on Wednesday morning.
Palestinian media reported on Wednesday that one person was injured in the air strikes, but Palestinian officials did not immediately confirm the news.
A group representing armed factions in Gaza – including Hamas and the smaller Palestinian Islamic Jihad – said the rockets fired from the strip were an “initial response” to the killing of Khader Adnan, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad member who was killed on Tuesday.
The Israeli Prison Service said Adnan, 45, was arrested on terrorism charges and found unconscious in his cell at a prison medical center that morning after refusing to undergo medical examinations or receive medical treatment.
Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh accused the Israeli authorities of causing Adnan’s death by refusing to request his release, neglecting him medically, and keeping him in his cell despite the seriousness of his condition.
Physicians for Human Rights in Israel said it had tried “for weeks” to persuade the Israeli Ministry of Health to keep Adnan in hospital. She added that her boss, Lina Qasim Hassan, had warned, after visiting him a few days ago, that he was facing “imminent death,” but his efforts fell on “deaf ears.”
An Israeli military spokesman said he believed Islamic Jihad fired the rockets from Gaza and that Hamas was aware of the rocket fire.
The flare-up comes at a time of heightened tension. Last month, militants in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria fired rockets into Israel after Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem in an attempt to drive away Palestinians who were trying to sleep on the compound – known to Jews as the Temple Mount – during the bombing period. The holy month of Ramadan for Muslims.
In response, Israel bombed targets in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.
The cross-border exchanges followed a year-long wave of violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank, in which Israeli forces killed more than 250 Palestinians in near-night raids in response to Palestinian attacks that began last spring and have since killed more than 40 Israelis. .
Adnan has been arrested several times by Israel. In several cases, he went on hunger strike to protest his administrative detention. Israel uses this measure to detain people without charge, but rights groups criticize it.
Israel says the administrative detentions are necessary to protect intelligence gathering. But rights groups say it makes it impossible for prisoners to mount a legal defence.