Rockets fired from Gaza after Islamic Jihad member dies from hunger strike in Israeli prison

Three rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel on Tuesday morning, the military confirmed. 

The rockets were fired after a senior member of Islamic Jihad, Khader Adnan, died from an 86-day-long hunger strike in an Israeli prison.

Adnan, 45, was arrested in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank in February on terror charges and had been on a hunger strike in Nitzan Prison in central Israel since.

He was found unconscious in his cell early Tuesday and was declared dead at Shamir Medical Center near Tel Aviv. Adnan had been on hunger strike several times before, including a 55-day-long strike in 2015.

Not long after, rocket sires blasted in Kibbutz Sa’ad where three rockets fell in open areas. Islamic Jihad issued a statement after the rocket fire, saying that Adnan’s death will be a “lesson for generations, we will not leave this path as long as Palestine remains under occupation.”

“The occupation will pay the price for (Adnan’s) death,” Islamic Jihad said. Hamas echoed Islamic Jihad’s threat, saying: “The Palestinian people will not let this crime pass by in silence, and will respond accordingly.”

The IDF has cracked down on Islamic Jihad in the West Bank in the past years, arresting and killing several of its members in army raids, saying they were either responsible for or planning terror attacks against Israel.

In August last year, similar army raids triggered a three-day conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.