As soon as the occupation authorities announced at dawn on Tuesday martyrdom of Sheikh Khader Adnan, events across Palestine and the Zionist entity escalated, risking a new confrontation between the resistance and the Israeli enemy.
Dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza on settlements bordering the coastal enclave, as shootings occurred in the occupied West Bank in a clear retaliation of the cold-blooded assassination of the senior Islamic Jihad official who was on his 87th day of hunger strike in protest against Israeli arbitrary detention.
Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoners were mulling to go on mass hunger strike in rejection of the Israeli policy of administrative detention.
More than 100 rockets were fired from Gaza into the occupied territories between Tuesday and Wednesday, with Israeli media reporting some failure in the Iron Dome Israeli defense system in attempts to down the Palestinian rockets.
The Islamic Jihad resistance group’s military wing Al-Quds Brigades published a video entitled “We Haven’t Started Yet,” in a clear message to the Israeli enemy that the retaliation to the assassination crime of Sheikh Adnan will be wide-scale.
The video below, translated and subtitled by Al-Manar’s Areej Fatima Al-Husseini shows Al-Quds Brigades fighters preparing rockets to be fired at occupied territories.
Intensive Calls to Avoid Confrontation
In parallel, the Islamic Jihad and Hamas movements received intensive calls from mediators, during which they demanded these two movements not to respond to the assassination crime from the Gaza Strip, and to avoid a new military confrontation with the occupation during the current period, Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported, citing well-informed sources.
However, the resistance responded that “the crime of assassinating Adnan won’t go unanswered, with the aim of deterring the enemy and preventing it from repeating such crimes against the prisoners,” according to the paper.
Indeed, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad held consultations about the nature of this response, which included parties in the axis of resistance, while “Al-Akhbar” learned that it was decided, as a result of the consultations, that the initial response would be from the West Bank, which witnessed, since yesterday morning, two operations that resulted in the injury of three soldiers from the occupation army, to be followed by responses from various arenas, including Gaza.
Resistance Pounds Occupied Territories
Shortly after, the Gaza Strip witnessed a series of tensions, which began with the firing of three missiles from the Strip towards the settlements of Gaza envelope, in parallel with the occupation army intensifying its flight over Gaza, and strengthening its preparations for the possibility of launching more missiles, by deploying the “Iron Dome” in the so-called “Gaza envelope” area and in around Tel Aviv.
The lsraeli aggression on Gaza Strip tonight. pic.twitter.com/Dd1jZQ5YqL
— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) May 2, 2023
In the afternoon on Tuesday, the occupation artillery targeted a resistance observation point east of the Gaza City, in response to the rocket fire, as stated by the enemy army spokesman, who also instructed the residents of the areas bordering the coastal strip to stay in places close to shelters.
As a result of this development, warning sirens sounded, more than once, in the settlements bordering Gaza, before the outcome of yesterday’s rockets, until the end of the dawn on Wednesday, reached more than 100 rockets and missiles, launched from Gaza, injuring more than 10 settlers, some of them seriously, as one of the rockets fell in Sderot settlement.
Subsequently, the Joint Room of Palestinian Resistance Factions claimed responsibility for shelling of the settlements bordering Gaza, describing it as “a preliminary response to this heinous crime that will trigger responses from our people in all arenas and places of engagement.”
The resistance’s joint room also confirmed that the issue of prisoners “will remain at the top of the priorities of the resistance’s leadership in all circumstances,” warning the enemy against escalating its aggression.
“Any crime or foolishness won’t remain unanswered, and the resistance is fully prepared to defend its people everywhere,” the Palestinian sources said as reported by Al-Akhbar.
Israeli Assessment, Reported ‘Ceasefire’
On the other hand, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conducted a security assessment that lasted for hours, in which security officials, the army chief of staff, and the defense minister participated. After the meeting, Israeli media circulated leaks that the occupation army has recommended to launch a so-called “expanded response campaign” to Gaza rockets in Gaza.
The Hebrew media quoted several security and political sources confirming that the situation is about to “a round of exchanges of fire, which may last for a day or two.”
According to Kan, the Israeli security system prepared itself for various scenarios, including “launching rockets from southern Lebanon, and shooting and running over operations in the West Bank and the interior.”
And on the mediation level, Egypt entered, as usual, in an attempt to stop the rocket fire, in exchange for the release of the martyr Khader Adnan’s body. However, according to Israeli media reports, Tel Aviv “strongly refused to release the body.”
However, Reuters news agency reported that the Zionist regime and the Palestinian resistance groups have reached a ceasefire early Wednesday morning, noting that the deal was mediated by officials from Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.
Source: Al-Manar English Website and Al-Akhbar Lebanese Newspaper
