Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Palestinian terrorists on Tuesday against attacking the Jewish state, following a spate of rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
“Anyone who attempts to harm the citizens of Israel will be sorry,” Gallant said after completing a situation assessment together with the IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.
Three civilians were seriously wounded earlier in the day by a rocket fired from Gaza into the southern Israeli city of Sderot. The Israel Defense Forces said the terrorists fired at least 22 projectiles in a major barrage.
It came after IDF Armored Corps tanks fired shells at terrorist assets in Gaza in response to Palestinian rocket fire targeting Israeli civilian population centers in the morning.
Palestinian terrorists fired four projectiles towards the Jewish state early Tuesday after senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Khader Adnan died in prison following an 87-day hunger strike.
Reuters cited Israeli prison authorities who said Adnan, 45, “refused to undergo medical tests and receive medical treatment” and “was found unconscious in his cell” at Nitzan Prison in Ramle.
Efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.
“The occupation [Israel] will pay the price for [Adnan’s] death,” which “will be a lesson for generations,” said PIJ in a statement. “We will not leave this path as long as Palestine remains under occupation.”
Hamas, which rules Gaza, described Adnan’s death as a “coldblooded execution by the Israeli security services,” and warned that “the Palestinian people will not let this crime pass by in silence.
“The path of revolution and resistance will escalate,” said the terror organization.
Also on Tuesday, an Israeli man was lightly wounded by shattered glass when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire on vehicles near the community of Avnei Hefetz, southeast of Tulkarem in Samaria.
The victim was evacuated to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba.
A female driver whose vehicle was also attacked was treated at the scene for shock.
And overnight Monday, Israeli forces arrested 13 suspected Palestinian terrorists in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.
Security forces also confiscated many weapons and other means of warfare during the operation.
Terrorists are “no longer deterred and the only action left to take is collective punishment,” Shlomo Ne’eman, chairman of the Yesha Council, told a hearing of the Knesset subcommittee for Judea and Samaria on Tuesday afternoon.
“Arab hostilities demand a much broader response than using tweezers to pluck out the problems,” said Ne’eman, who is also head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council.
“The whole village should be punished because there is no other way. The entire village should have their work licenses [for within the Green Line] revoked until they settle down. Dealing with Arab hostilities effectively has still not been established other than collective punishment,” he said.
