Sirens warning of incoming rockets sounded in Israeli areas near Gaza, the Israeli military said on Tuesday, in the second salvo since the death of a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike earlier. Some 20 rockets were fired on Israel in the second salvo. Four were intercepted and more than 15 were not engaged because their trajectory was not threatening homes, but one hit a private yard in the nearby town of Sderot. A foreign worker in one of the nearby towns sustained serious injuries from shrapnel. Another two people sustained minor wounds.
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Shortly before the rockets were fired, a Hamas radio station said an Israeli tank shelled a Hamas security position near the border but there was no immediate Israeli confirmation. In the first salvo early in the morning, three rockets were fired but no casualties were reported
The high-profile Palestinian prisoner, Khader Adnan, died in Israeli custody on Tuesday after a nearly three-month-long hunger strike, Israel's prison service announced, at a time of already soaring tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
Adnan, a leader in the terrorist Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, had begun staging protracted hunger strikes more than a decade ago. Palestinians called for a general strike in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and protests were expected later in the day. Palestinian terrorists fired a volley of rockets from Gaza toward empty fields in Israel. Islamic Jihad said in a statement that "our fight continues and will not stop."
Israel's prison service said Adnan had been charged with "involvement in terrorist activities." It said he was in a prison medical facility but had refused medical treatment "until the last moment" while legal proceedings moved forward. It said he was found unconscious in his cell early Tuesday and transferred to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Around 200 people gathered outside Adnan's home in the West Bank town of Arraba, holding signs bearing his image and called for revenge. Adnan's widow, Randa Musa, told those gathered outside that "we do not want a single drop of bloodshed" in response to his death.
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