Hours after a Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody, more than 20 rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel, injuring at least 12 people on Tuesday in a sudden but brief round of escalation in the South.
The barrage came after Israeli forces hit the coastal enclave with tank fire in response to three rockets launched in the morning following the announcement that a Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody overnight.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened a meeting with security officials this evening to assess the situation and Israel’s response.
Speaking to The Media Line, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi said he believed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) mounted a cursory response to save face after its prisoner died but was not looking to trigger a military operation.
“They don’t want to bring this whole operation in Gaza, so I believe this shooting will not be at a large scale and not over a large distance,” he said.
“The interests of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are not really to escalate the situation, but the big question is what Iran wants,” he noted. “And because they are completely funded by Iran, the big question is what Iran wants and maybe the Iranians want something different and we will see an escalation.”
Khader Adnan, a political activist with PIJ, was being held in Israel for “involvement in terrorist activities” and had been on an extended hunger strike.
Adnan’s lawyer, Jamil Al-Khatib, however, said the prison service refused to heed his legal team’s requests to transfer Adnan to a hospital. Adnan did not eat for 86 days and refused medical treatment, according to Israel’s prison service. He was found unconscious in his cell this morning, the prison service said.
The left-wing Israeli human rights organization B’tselem has described Adnan’s hunger strike as “a form of nonviolent protest against his arrest and the injustices of the occupation.”
“The fact that a person whose life was in danger remained in prison despite repeated requests to transfer him to a hospital reflects the absolute disregard Israel held for his life,” the organization said.
Hundreds of Palestinians rallied today in Gaza and in several cities in the West Bank after Adnan’s death was announced.
According to an official statement by the PIJ, the return of Adnan’s body is “a pure right of the Palestinian people and is not subject to negotiation. We will return the bodies of all our martyrs, with all the means at our disposal, just as we will release our prisoners.”
PIJ Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhlah lauded Adnan as a martyr.
“We have chosen the path of martyrdom with Sheikh Khader Adnan being a prime example of this. We will continue our jihad and resistance until the occupier is removed from our land; this is our duty,” he said in a statement.
Avivi warned that rather than seek an escalation in the Gaza Strip, the terror groups will possibly encourage terror attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem as revenge.
“We have to be very alert and ready for any scenario,” he said.
However, Adnan’s widow, Randa Musa, asked the Palestinian public to refrain from seeking revenge for her husband’s death. “We do not want a single drop of bloodshed,” she told a group of around 200 protesters that had gathered in the West Bank town of Arraba. “We do not want rockets to be fired.”
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said, “Israel must ensure a thorough investigation into the circumstances of Khader Adnan’s death.
Hussein al-Sheikh, the Palestinian Authority’s civil affairs minister, said, “We hold the occupation authorities fully responsible for the martyrdom of brother Khader Adnan in the occupation prisons as a result of negligence and forced detention.”