Khader Adnane was a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Islamic Jihad, who died after a hunger strike in an Israeli prison.
Israel announced on Tuesday May 2 that it had fired on the Gaza Strip in response to rockets launched earlier towards its territory, when new projectiles were launched towards Israeli soil, according to AFP journalists. These strikes targeted various sites, including one of the Islamist movement Hamas, according to security sources and Palestinian witnesses. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades claimed to have responded with surface-to-air missile fire.
These exchanges of fire follow the death of Khader Adnane, 45, from the occupied West Bank, imprisoned on numerous occasions by Israel and who had gone on several hunger strikes, becoming a symbol for the Palestinians. Early Tuesday, the Israeli Prison Service announced the death of a prisoner affiliated with Islamic Jihad, “found unconscious in his cell” then hospitalized. “Khader Adnane has chosen the hunger strike as a last resort, a non-violent means of protesting against the oppression to which he and his people are subjected”reacted the organization Physicians for human rights Israel, which had called for his hospitalization “immediate” after visiting him.
A total of 22 rockets were fired
At dawn, three rockets and a mortar shell were fired from Gaza into Israel, falling in wasteland or near the border fence, according to the Israeli army. Exchanges of fire, Israeli tanks on one side and rockets on the other, then took place in the afternoon. Twenty-two rockets were fired, 16 of which fell into open terrain and four were intercepted by the defense system, the army said. Two fell in the Israeli town of Sderot and three people were injured by shrapnel, rescue workers said.
The shootings were claimed, in a joint press release, by the armed groups in Gaza, who presented them as “a first response” on the death of Khader Adnane. After the death was announced, Islamic Jihad, an organization considered “terrorist” by Israel, the United States and the European Union, claimed that Israel “will pay the price for this crime”.
Call for general strike
On Tuesday morning, Palestinian merchants also closed their shops in the occupied West Bank, responding to a call for a general strike. In the north of this territory, an Israeli was injured by shards of glass and two vehicles were damaged by gunfire, according to the Israeli army, according to the search for suspects.
In August 2022, three days of clashes between Israel and Islamic Jihad left 49 Palestinians dead, including 12 members of Islamic Jihad according to the movement, and at least 19 children according to the UN. About 200 rockets were fired by Islamic Jihad from Gaza into Israel, injuring three.