Resistance groups, Israel agree to Gaza ceasefire after rocket fire over Adnan’s murder

The Israeli military and Palestinian resistance groups in the Gaza Strip have agreed to a ceasefire after a night of Israeli air strikes that pounded the besieged coastal enclave.

The truce also came after around 100 rockets were launched from Gaza toward the occupied territories following the martyrdom in prison of prominent Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan after an 87-day hunger strike.

The “reciprocal and simultaneous” ceasefire went into effect at 3:30 a.m. local time (0030 GMT) on Wednesday, and was brought about with efforts from Egyptian, Qatari and United Nations officials, two sources told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

Tariq Salmi, a spokesperson for the Islamic Jihad resistance movement, said in a statement that fighting had ended by dawn on Wednesday.

“One round of confrontation has ended, but the march of resistance continues and will not stop,” he said.

“Our brave fighters have proven their loyalty and commitment to defending their people,” Salmi added.

Palestinian resistance groups target Israeli settlements in retaliatory strike

Palestinian resistance groups return the Israeli regime

Hamas had engaged in talks with Egyptian, Qatari and UN officials to end Israeli “aggression on Gaza”, the resistance group said in a statement earlier on Wednesday.

Hamas said its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, held talks with officials from both countries and the world body to end Israel’s attacks, which saw Israeli fighter jets and tanks attack targets in Gaza late on Tuesday and Palestinian resistance fighters fire around 100 rockets into the occupied territories.

Haniyeh also demanded that Israel return the hunger striker’s body to his family.

“We stress – and as we have informed all the mediators who intervened – the necessity of handing over the body of the martyr Khader Adnan to his patient family,” the Hamas chief said in a statement.

Adnan, 45, from Arraba town in the northern occupied West Bank, died early Tuesday after an 87-day hunger in an Israeli prison.

International Committee of Red Cross calls on Israel to release Khader Adnan's body

Human rights organizations say Israel violates all the rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The Islamic Jihad member, who Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups say was withheld medical attention, had taken the action in protest at his administrative detention.

Over the past 20 years, Adnan had been arrested a dozen times by Israeli forces for his political and anti-occupation activities. He spent a total of eight years behind bars.

He went on hunger strike four times during his detentions, the longest of which was a 67-day period in 2012 that resulted in his release and inspired other Palestinian prisoners held under administrative detention to follow suit.

In 2015, he once again went on a hunger strike for 56 days to protest his detention. He did the same in 2018 for 58 days.

Adnan was also arrested in 2021 and was transferred to administrative detention. He went on a hunger strike for 25 days at the time.

Hundreds of the inmates have been apparently incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention.

Hamas: Resistance committed to liberation of Palestinian prisoners

Palestinian inmates have been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.

Human rights organizations say Israel violates all the rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention. They say administrative detention violates their right to due process since the evidence is withheld from prisoners while they are held for lengthy periods without being charged, tried, or convicted.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express outrage at their detention.

Israeli jail authorities keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards.

Palestinian inmates have also been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.

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