Gaza/Tel Aviv, May 3, (dpa/GNA) – A reported ceasefire returned calm to Israel and the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, after a day and night of heavy Palestinian rocket attacks and retaliatory Israeli air strikes.
The Israeli army announced a “complete return to routine” in the border area with the Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, confirmed that a ceasefire between Palestinian factions and Israel came into effect early on Wednesday morning.
The agreement was brokered by Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar. Israel did not immediately confirm the ceasefire agreement.
Israel’s air force attacked several targets in the Gaza Strip during two waves of strikes during the night, after militants fired rockets and shells at Israel. The Israeli military said targets included Hamas-run weapons depots, tunnels, weapons production facilities and a training facility.
The exchanges of fire followed the death of high-profile Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan in Israeli custody. Adnan, a high-ranking member of the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, died after spending almost three months on hunger strike in an Israeli jail.
A 58-year-old Palestinian died in Gaza on Wednesday morning after sustaining serious injuries, according to the local Health Ministry.
According to Palestinian reports, he was hit by a large stone during an Israeli air strike. In addition, five other people were injured, it said. In Israel, at least three people were injured by rocket fragments, one of them seriously.
Warning sirens had continued wailing in the Palestinian coastal area into the morning, despite early reports that the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas had been agreed during the night.
The Israeli military reported that a total of 104 rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip. Of these, 24 rockets were intercepted, 14 rockets exploded in the air, 11 landed in the Mediterranean Sea and 48 rockets landed in open areas, it said.
It is still being investigated what happened to the remaining missiles, the army said.
In addition, six mortar shells were fired in the evening.
Adnan, 44, had been found unconscious in his cell early Tuesday, according to a prison spokesman. Following resuscitation attempts, he was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead.
Following his death, several Palestinian militant organizations in the Gaza Strip announced retaliation, holding the Israeli prison authorities responsible.
Adnan, who was from Jenin in the West Bank, had been imprisoned for suspected membership in a terrorist organization and support for terrorism and hate speech. It was the tenth time he had been imprisoned in Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel’s army demolished the family homes of two Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
Israel uses home demolitions as a punitive and deterrent measure.
Human rights organizations classify the demolition policy as a form of collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law.
GNA