Israel has been carrying out airstrikes in Gaza after Palestinian factions fired rockets across the border following the death of Khader Adnan.
Jets from Israel hit targets across the Gaza Strip on May 2. This came as a response to the rocket barrages that had been fired by militant groups earlier in the day, following the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli custody.
The training camps of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the coastal enclave, were hit when jets struck the targets. Columns of smoke surfaced across the night sky as a result of this.
Sirens were heard at the same time near the southern town of Sderot and other areas around Gaza. Hamas radio broadcasted that the militant cliques were continuing their bombing of targets.
The first Palestinian death in Israel’s prison in over 30 years
Almost a month after the last cross-border exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza, this fighting is a result of the death of Khader Adnan, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad group, who died after an 87-day hunger strike.
Islamic Jihad sources have informed me that Adnan was one of its political leaders. The group had a restricted presence in the West Bank but is the second-most powerful militant group in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where a brief war was fought against Israeli forces in August.
Adnan had been arrested on charges that included association with outlawed groups and incitement to violence.
Khader Adnan was awaiting trial.
He was taken to the hospital after being found unconscious in his prison cell. He died in the hospital, even after attempts to revive him.
He was the first Palestinian hunger striker to die in an Israeli prison in over 30 years.
The streets of Gaza flooded with people as hundreds came out to protest against his death and mourn him. The Palestinian leaders have called his death an assassination.
Adnan had performed at least three hunger strikes since 2011. This tactic was a common practise among Palestinian prisoners, sometimes performed en masse. However, no one had died since 1992.
Israeli authorities have been accused of withholding medical care by Adnan’s lawyer and a doctor with a human rights group.
Adnan was demanded to be moved into a civilian hospital for proper care, but the demand was met with intransigence and rejection.
Lina Qasem-Hassan of Physicians for Human Rights in Israel has said that his death could have been avoided. She added that several hospitals in Israel refused to admit him when he visited their emergency room.
“The fight is continuing.”
According to the Israeli military, at least 26 rockets were fired from Gaza. Two of those landed in Sderot, wounding three people. A 25-year-old foreign national sustained serious shrapnel wounds, according to Israel’s ambulance service.
The responsibility for the series of rocket barrages fired towards Israel in the middle of the day has been claimed by an umbrella group of armed Palestinian sections, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Hamas radio had reported that before the rockets, a tank had bombed one of Gaza’s observation posts.
Adnan’s wife has requested that she does not want to see any bloodshed. According to Physicians for Human Rights, Israel’s authorities had denied the requests of Adnan’s family and friends to visit him.
The Palestinian Prisoners Association has reported that Adnan has been arrested 12 times, spending over eight years in prison under “administrative detention,” or detention without charges.
According to Israel, such detentions are necessary when evidence cannot be disclosed in court due to the need to keep intelligence sources confidential.
Israel has been accused by several rights groups and Palestinians of often using this type of detention, which denies due process of law, to arrest hundreds of Palestinians for long periods of time.
