Three dozen rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel yesterday, injuring at least three, after Israeli prison services announced the death of an Islamic Jihad leader arrested in February who had been on hunger strike for 86 years. The various Palestinian armed groups have warned that this is only the “initial response” to Khader Adnan’s death, fearing a new flare-up of violence, with the promise of an overnight Israeli response.
This was not Adnan’s first hunger strike against so-called “administrative detentions”., which allows suspects to be detained indefinitely (for renewable periods of six months) without being charged or tried in Israel. According to the Palestinian non-governmental organization Addameer, of the 4,900 Palestinian prisoners currently in Israeli prisons, 1,016 are in this situation.
Khader Adnan, who was detained 12 times and spent nearly eight years in prison (mostly in administrative detention), has become a symbol of resistance through numerous hunger strikes. In 2012 he went 66 days without eating, in 2015 another 56 days (when he was released). Arrested again on February 5 in his hometown of Arraba, near Jenin (in the West Bank), he went on hunger strike again. The protest was already on its 86th day, when Adnan was found “unconscious in his cell”. Taken to hospital, he was pronounced dead after attempts to resuscitate him.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, he will be the first Palestinian prisoner to die as a direct result of a hunger strike in Israeli prisons. Director Qaddura Faris, quoted by AFP, said other prisoners who held these protests died trying to force-feed them. The club had warned last week that Adnan’s health was “very serious” and he refused nutritional support or medical tests.
A military court reportedly recently rejected his release on health grounds, with Adnan’s wife saying Israel had refused to transfer him to a civilian hospital or admit a lawyer. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denounced “a deliberate killing” of Israel for “denying his request for release, clinically ignoring him and keeping him in jail despite the seriousness of his health”.
reactions
The immediate reaction of the Palestinian militants was to fire rockets against Israel – only four at first, but 22 more in the afternoon and a dozen more in the early evening. The Israeli Defense Forces initially indicated that four of the rockets was intercepted by iron dome (defense system) and that the rest had fallen in uninhabited areas, but police uncovered at least five impact sites in urban areas. Authorities tried to find out if the system had failed yesterday.
In Sderot, in southern Israel, at least three people were injured, one of them seriously, when they were hit by shrapnel at a construction site. The three will be foreigners, but their nationalities have not been disclosed. the attacks of rockets were claimed by Islamic Jihad – which has promised that Israel will “pay the price for this crime” – and by Hamas.
Israel responded with tank fire in the early afternoon, but there was the promise of retaliation throughout the night. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that “anyone who tries to harm the citizens of Israel will regret it”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with those responsible for the country’s defense, but left out National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (of one of the far-right parties that make up the coalition). consideration.
Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for the police, has since ordered the alarm level in prisons to be raised and prisoners left in cells to “prevent riots”. In addition, he will have ordered to punish prisoners who refuse to eat. “The Prison Services Directive is a zero tolerance for hunger strikes and riots in security prisons,” said the minister.
Tension next to birthday
This case threatens to reignite tension between Israelis and Palestinians as the date of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel (May 14) approaches. The day after the declaration of independence, five Arab countries invaded the country, sparking an eight-month conflict. More than 760,000 Palestinians were eventually expelled or forced to flee their country, with both Arabs and Palestinians announcing the Nakba, or catastrophe, on May 15.
Last month, around Ramadan, new clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque (one of Islam’s holiest sites) had caused another downpour. rockets, this time from Lebanon – for the first time since the war. Since the beginning of the year, the conflict has caused the deaths of at least 97 Israelis, in addition to 19 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian, according to AFP calculations.
Source: DN
