TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli air force attacked targets in Gaza on Tuesday evening after militants fired at least 30 rockets and six shells at Israel following the death of a high-profile Palestinian prisoner.
The operation began late in the evening, according to the Israeli Defense Force, without providing further details.
Several explosions were heard in the Gaza, according to media reports.
Ynet news site reported that Egypt was trying to mediate between Israel and parties in Gaza Strip to halt the latest eruption of violence.
At least three people were injured in Israel, one of them seriously, by the rockets, according to medics.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said, “Anyone who tries to harm the citizens of Israel will regret it.” The military and police called on residents to stay close to shelters.
The attacks came after the death of a high-ranking member of the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement in an Israeli jail after almost three months on hunger strike.
Khader Adnan, 44, was found unconscious in his cell early Tuesday, according to a prison spokesman. During resuscitation attempts, he was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead.
The man from the northern West Bank city of Jenin had been on hunger strike since Feb. 5, the spokesman said.
Adnan had been imprisoned on charges of membership of a terrorist organization and support for terror and incitement, according to the spokesman, who added that this had been the militant’s 10th period of detention in Israel.
According to the Israeli news website ynet, the prison authorities raised the alert level for fear of unrest among other Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel of having carried out “a deliberate assassination” of Adnan, “by rejecting his request for his release, neglecting him medically, and keeping him in his cell despite the seriousness of his health condition,” he was quoted as saying by the WAFA news agency.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also held Israel responsible for Adnan’s death, calling for an international investigation.
Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip have called a general strike.
Israel’s far-right police minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, told authorities to tell prisoners that if they riot or start a hunger strike, they will lose some of their previously granted conditions, according to ynet.
He told the authorities to adopt a “zero-tolerance policy.”
A senior Islamic Jihad member in the Gaza Strip said “the enemy will pay the price for this crime.”
The Islamist Hamas, which rules the coastal Palestinian territory, expressed similar sentiments, announcing that their people, “with all their forces and factions, will escalate by all means and tools all forms of resistance and confront the occupation’s crimes against prisoners and captives.”
According to the Israeli prison authorities, Adnan was a married father of three children. Palestinian media spoke of nine children.
The Islamist had been repeatedly arrested by Israeli security forces in the past and held in so-called “administrative detention.”
This kind of detention allows for people to be held for six months or longer without official charges for security reasons.
In 2015, Adnan was released after a life-threatening hunger strike. In February 2012, he ended another 66-day hunger strike after reaching an agreement with Israel.
This time, however, the legal situation was different, according to Israeli sources, because Adnan had been officially charged with terrorism offenses in a military court.
According to the Israeli side, there was a well-equipped medical facility in the prison, and Adnan was regularly taken to a civilian hospital. However, he had refused all medical treatment and tests, the prison authorities said. “For him, there was apparently only release or death,” the prison spokesman said.
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