Following intense salvos from Gaza and retaliatory strikes by the IDF, Arab media reported that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire early Wednesday. Israelis living near Gaza were told they could resume their normal daily activities.
Earlier, Israeli jets struck in Gaza as armed groups there fired rocket barrages toward Israel in response to the death of Khader Adnan, a prominent terrorist of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad faction, following an 87-day hunger strike in an Israeli prison. More than 100 rockets were launched on Israel since Tuesday.
Following the announcement of the unofficial truce, the IDF Spokesperson Unit Daniel Hagari said Hamas, the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip since 2007, should not provoke with more rocket fire.
"We have had a night of fighting in Gaza, with two waves of Israeli Air Force assaults that struck 16 PIJ and Hamas targets," the IDF said. "It was a tough 24 hours for Israeli residents of the Gaza border, we are entrusted with protectingthem and maintaining thecalm," Hagari warned on Twitter, and added, "We held briefings this morning with the IDF chief of staff; everything is on the table if the peace of the border community is disrupted."
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Adnan, who was awaiting trial, was found unconscious in his cell and taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead after efforts to revive him, the Israel Prisons Service said. He was the first Palestinian hunger striker to die in Israeli custody in more than 30 years.
Video: Reuters
Hundreds of people took to the streets in the Palestinian cities to rally and mourn Adnan's death, which Palestinian leaders described as an assassination. In Gaza, an umbrella group of armed Palestinian factions including Hamas and PIJ claimed responsibility for a series of rocket salvoes fired towards Israel during the day.
On Tuesday, hours after the deah, the Israeli military said it identified at least 30 rocket launches that set off sirens in southern Israel including in Ashkelon, about 14 km (9 miles) north of Gaza, and sent people running to bomb shelters. Two rockets landed in the small Israeli city of Sderot just east of Gaza, wounding three people, including a 25-year-old foreign national who Israel's ambulance service said sustained serious shrapnel wounds.
Late on Tuesday, plumes of smoke spiraled into the night sky and explosions could be heard as the Israeli military said it hit targets across Gaza including weapons manufacturing sites and training camps of Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza.
PIJ spokesman Tareq Selmi said fighting had ended by dawn Wednesday. Two Palestinian officials said Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations helped secure a "reciprocal and simultaneous" ceasefire that largely seemed to hold. The two officials from Hamas and the PIJ said a ceasefire has been brokered by Egypt and other regional players. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms of the deal were pending further discussions over when Israel will hand over Khader's body for burial.
In the West Bank city of Hebron, shops observed a general strike. Some protesters burned tires and hurled stones at Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them. There were no reports of injuries.
Since 2011, Adnan conducted at least three hunger strikes to protest detention without charges by Israel. "We demanded he be moved into a civilian hospital where he could be properly monitored. Unfortunately, such a demand was met by intransigence and rejection," Al-Khatib told Reuters. The Israel Prisons Service said hospitalization had not been an option as Adnan had declined "even a preliminary inspection".
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Association, Adnan was arrested by Israel 12 times, spending around eight years in prison.
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