JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets on Tuesday, the Israeli army stated, following the dying of a high-profile Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody after a virtually three-month-long starvation strike.
The dying of 45-year-old Khader Adnan, a distinguished chief of the militant Islamic Jihad group, has outraged Palestinian militants and leaders and raised fears of a retaliation. Earlier Tuesday, militants in Gaza fired a volley of rockets towards empty fields in Israel.
The Israeli army stated that Palestinian militants in Gaza launched 22 rockets towards Israeli territory later Tuesday. 4 rockets have been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile protection system, the army added.
A 25-year-old man was critically wounded within the assault, Israeli medics reported.
Palestinian armed teams have lengthy vowed to strike Israel if a hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner comparable to Adnan — celebrated as a nationwide hero for his resistance to Israel — died in Israeli custody.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows under.
A high-profile Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody on Tuesday after a virtually three-month-long starvation strike, Israel’s jail service introduced, at a time of already hovering tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
Khader Adnan, a pacesetter within the militant Islamic Jihad group, had begun staging protracted starvation strikes greater than a decade in the past, introducing a brand new type of protests towards Israel’s mass detentions of Palestinians with out prices or trials. On Tuesday, the 45-year-old turned the primary long-term starvation striker to die in Israeli custody.
Palestinians referred to as for a normal strike within the West Financial institution and the Gaza Strip, and protests have been anticipated later within the day. Palestinian militants fired a volley of rockets from Gaza towards empty fields in Israel. Islamic Jihad stated in a press release that “our battle continues and won’t cease.”
Adnan’s dying comes as Israel is led by its most right-wing authorities ever.
Prisons and Palestinian prisoners are overseen by Cupboard minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultra-nationalist politician who beforehand tightened restrictions on the Palestinian inmates, together with shortening their bathe time and shutting jail bakeries.
Ben-Gvir stated Tuesday that jail officers should exhibit “zero-tolerance towards starvation strikes and unrest in safety prisons” and ordered prisoners be confined to their cells.
As Israeli-Palestinian violence has spiked, the variety of administrative detainees has risen to greater than 1,000 over the previous 12 months, the best quantity in twenty years.
For administrative detainees, starvation strikes are sometimes the final recourse. A number of have staged starvation strikes lasting a number of months, typically changing into dangerously unwell. Earlier Israeli governments have at occasions conceded to a few of their calls for to keep away from deaths in custody.
This time, warnings about Adnan’s deteriorating well being have been ignored, stated the advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
The group and Adnan’s lawyer stated that they had requested Israeli authorities to maneuver him from his cell to a hospital the place his situation might greatest be monitored. The rights group stated a physician who visited Adnan a number of days in the past warned that his life was at risk.
“We lay the duty for his dying on the toes of the Israeli authorities,” stated Dana Moss, from the rights group. “Starvation strikes are one of many few nonviolent instruments left to Palestinians as they battle towards Israel’s unfair authorized system, set inside a context of long run occupation and a regime of apartheid.”
Dawood Shahab, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, referred to as Adnan’s dying “a full-fledged crime, for which the Israeli occupation bears full and direct duty.”
Within the West Financial institution, Mohammed Shtayyeh, the prime minister of the Palestinian self-rule authorities additionally held Israel accountable. He portrayed Adnan’s dying as “premeditated assassination by refusing his request for his launch, neglecting him medically, and preserving him in his cell regardless of the seriousness of his well being situation.”
Israel’s jail service stated Adnan had been charged with “involvement in terrorist actions.” It stated he was in a jail medical facility, however had refused medical remedy “till the final second” whereas authorized proceedings moved ahead. It stated he was discovered unconscious in his cell early Tuesday and transferred to a hospital the place he was pronounced lifeless.
Round 200 folks gathered outdoors Adnan’s residence within the occupied West Financial institution city of Arraba, holding indicators bearing his picture and referred to as for revenge. Adnan’s widow, Randa Musa, instructed these gathered outdoors that “we don’t want a single drop of bloodshed” in response to his dying.
“We don’t want rockets to be fired, or a following strike on Gaza,” she instructed the group.
Palestinian prisoners are seen as nationwide heroes and any perceived menace to them whereas in Israeli detention can spark off tensions or violence. Israel sees Adnan and different Palestinian prisoners as safety threats accused of involvement in lethal assaults or plots.
Over the previous decade, Adnan turned a family identify within the Palestinian territories, as a logo of steadfastness towards Israel’s open-ended occupation, now in its 56th 12 months. He staged a number of prolonged starvation strikes over time, together with a 66-day protest in 2012, and two different strikes in 2015 and 2018 that lasted 56 and 58 days respectively. Israel launched Adnan after the 2015 strike.
He’s credited with turning starvation strikes right into a software of protests by Palestinian detainees and a helpful bargaining chip towards Israeli authorities.
Based on the Palestinian Prisoners Membership, which represents former and present prisoners, Adnan was arrested 12 occasions and spent about eight years in Israeli prisons, most of that point beneath administrative detention.
The variety of administrative detainees has grown up to now 12 months as Israel has carried out virtually nightly arrest raids within the West Financial institution within the wake of a string of lethal Palestinian assaults in Israel in early 2022.
Israel says the controversial tactic helps authorities thwart assaults and maintain harmful militants with out divulging incriminating materials for safety causes.
Palestinians and rights teams say the system is broadly abused and denies due course of, with the key nature of the proof making it not possible for administrative detainees or their attorneys to mount a protection.
Israel and Palestinians within the West Financial institution have been locked in a bout of preventing for the previous 12 months. About 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fireplace and 49 folks have been killed in Palestinian assaults on Israelis.
On Tuesday, Israeli officers stated an Israeli man was evenly wounded in a suspected Palestinian taking pictures assault within the West Financial institution.