Israeli fighter jets launched air strikes in Gaza on Tuesday night, with explosions heard in the besieged coastal enclave as tensions rose over the killing of a prominent Palestinian prisoner held by Israel after 87 years of hunger strike. days.
The Israeli bombardment follows rocket fire from the Gaza Strip following the killing of Khader Adnan earlier on Tuesday. And pro-Hamas media said that Israeli planes bombed two locations in Gaza City.
On Tuesday, the Israeli Prison Service said Adnan, who was awaiting trial, was found unconscious in his cell and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead after trying to revive him.
Hundreds took to the streets of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to demonstrate in support of Adnan to mourn his death, which Palestinian leaders described as an assassination.
The Israeli military said at least 26 rockets were fired from the Strip. Two fell in the southern town of Sderot, injuring three people, including a 25-year-old foreign national who the Israeli ambulance service said had serious shrapnel injuries.
An umbrella group of Palestinian armed factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the barrage of rockets towards Israel.
Earlier today, Tel Aviv fired artillery shells at several areas in the eastern parts of Gaza City and Khan Yunis, specifically targeting the Malka area, according to Al-Jazeera correspondent Hiba Aqila.
There were no reports of injuries or damages so far.
In the West Bank city of Hebron, shops organized a general strike. Some demonstrators burned tires and threw stones at the occupation soldiers, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them. There were no reports of injuries.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with security officials to assess the situation. An Israeli military official said Israel would respond when and where it chose.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said prison officials had decided to seal the cells “to prevent riots”.
And the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, said in a tweet on Twitter that the security establishment will act “firmly and forcefully” against those who harm the state.
Israeli observers said they believed an attack on Gaza was imminent. Obviously, there will be an Israeli response. “Expect heavy air strikes in the coming hours,” Jackie Khoury, an expert on Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera from Haifa.
“I think the rules of the game will remain the same at this point: As was the case last month, the massive air strikes in Gaza have not targeted residential areas.
Al-Jazeera correspondent Muhammad Jamjoom said from West Jerusalem that it would be surprising if Israel did not respond. Usually, “they do it at night, ie later tonight or very early tomorrow morning,” he said.
Administrative detention
Mustafa Al-Barghouti, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the killing of Khader Adnan as a “horrific assassination” aimed at “breaking the spirit of resistance among Palestinian prisoners.”
Administrative detention is a common procedure by which Palestinians are forcibly detained without knowing the charges against them. Hunger strikes are often a last resort.
Barghouti said this was a “total distortion of international human rights law.”
The number of Palestinian administrative detainees rose to more than 1,000 over the past year, the highest number in two decades.
The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem described Khader Adnan’s hunger strike as “a form of peaceful protest against his arrest and the injustice of the occupation.”
Lina Kassem Hassan, of Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, said she saw Adnan on April 23, who had lost 40 kilograms (88 pounds) and was having trouble breathing but was conscious.
“His death could have been avoided,” Qasim Hassan said. Several Israeli hospitals refused Adnan admission after he made short visits to the emergency room.
Since 2011, Adnan has led at least three hunger strikes in protest of Israel’s detentions without being charged. This tactic has been used by other Palestinian prisoners, sometimes en masse, but none have died since 1992.
Adnan Jamil al-Khatib’s lawyer and a doctor from a human rights group he met recently have accused the Israeli authorities of withholding medical care.
We demanded that he be transferred to a civilian hospital where he could be properly monitored. “Unfortunately, this request was met with intransigence and rejection,” Khatib told Reuters.
Adnan, 45, was a baker and father of nine from Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Sources in Islamic Jihad said he was one of its political leaders.
The faction has a limited presence in the West Bank but is the second most powerful armed group in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where Israeli forces carried out a bombing last August.
