Hours after rockets fired by Gaza terrorist groups landed off the coast of Tel Aviv, Islamic Jihad threatened more violence if a starving Palestinian prisoner dies of hunger.
Hisham Abu Hawash, a Palestinian from the small town of Dura near Hebron, is on a hunger strike to protest his detention by Israel for 137 days, according to his lawyers.
The International Committee for the Red Cross warned in late December that Abu Hawash’s long fast placed him “in critical condition” that could potentially lead to his death.
“It is being subjected to a process of assassination, elimination,” Islamic Jihad said in a statement on Saturday afternoon. “We will deal with the matter in accordance with our commitment to respond to any criminal homicide by the enemy.”
Israel has sporadically targeted terrorist group commanders in operations. In 2019, an Israeli airstrike that killed Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu al-Ata triggered a two-day escalation between Israel and Gaza with the terrorist group firing rockets in Tel Aviv.
Palestinian factions in Gaza regularly threaten renewed violence in response to the conditions for prisoners who have gone on hunger strikes. Most of these threats have not yet materialized; In most cases, the Israeli authorities either agree not to renew the detainees’ detention or the prisoners end their fast.
Palestinian prisoner Hisham Abu Hawwash is on his 135th day of hunger strike to protest his illegal detention in Israeli prisons without trial or charge.#hisham_abu_hawash pic.twitter.com/1SyGL5QDQx
— bellal aldbore (@belmd12) December 29, 2021
Hussein al-Sheikh, senior Palestinian Authority official, announced on Saturday that the Palestinian Authority also passed on Israel’s demand to “immediately release” Abu Hawash.
Al-Sheikh wrote on Twitter, “We hold the Israeli government solely responsible” in the event of Abu Hawash’s death.
According to his lawyers, Abu Hawash has been detained in Israel since October 2020. He is held under Israel’s policy of administrative detention, meaning he has not been charged with a crime.
The Shin Bet Security Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case of Abu Hawash. Israeli authorities routinely use administrative detentions against those believed to be plotters of terrorist attacks.
Israeli security officials say sometimes capturing suspected terrorists without charge is the only way to stop brutal attacks. Rights groups argue that Israel abuses the practice and deploys it against those who pose no imminent threat.
Tensions have risen across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza in the past few weeks. Israelis are grappling with a flurry of Palestinian terrorist attacks, in which two Israeli civilians have been killed.
Many of the attackers were teenagers or youth with no apparent organizational ties and were armed only with a knife or their car. But the two attacks were planned by members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad with assault weapons.
Israeli soldiers near the site of gunfire from the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on December 29, 2021. (flash 90)
An Israeli civilian was injured in a shootout near a security fence off Gaza on Thursday. Israeli tanks opened fire on Hamas positions in northern Gaza, injuring three, according to Hamas-run Gaza health ministry officials.
Earlier on Saturday, rockets fired from Gaza landed on the coast of central Israel, causing the sound of explosions.
There was no siren warning of oncoming rockets, to indicate that no projectiles were headed towards populated areas. The Iron Dome missile defense system was not activated for the same reason.
Armed factions in Gaza said the rocket fire was “due to weather conditions” (the launcher is believed to have been caused by lightning or some other malfunction). This was not the first time the explanation had been used for the firing of projectiles towards Israel.