Islamic State affiliate claims Wednesday’s rocket attack from Gaza
Islamic Jihad threatens to fire at Israel if former hunger striker Mohammed Allaan dies in hospital
Two days after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck southern Israel, a radical jihadist group affiliated with the Islamic State on Friday claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, a Salafist group based in the Gaza Strip, claimed it launched the rocket Wednesday night which caused no damage or casualties. The group previously claimed a number of rocket attacks at Israel earlier in the summer.
The group is at odds with Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and has previously defied the Hamas government by firing rockets at Israel. Sporadic rocket fire from the Gaza Strip recent months has largely been the work of small radical jihadist groups, such as the Omar Hadid Brigade, chafing under Hamas rule. However, Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire from the Strip.
In response to the attack the IDF carried out an airstrike in the central Gaza Strip late Wednesday night, targeting a Hamas weapons production facility in the center of the territory. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Meanwhile the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group on Friday warned that if Palestinian detainee Mohammed Allaan dies, it would launch rockets at Israel.
“So long as Mohammed Allaan’s life is in danger, the armed wing of the [Islamic] Jihad stands ready to fire rockets,” group leader Ramadan Shalah said in an interview on Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV.
Allaan, 31, an attorney, ended his hunger strike Thursday after Israel’s top court suspended an order under which he had been detained without trial since November.
Said to be a member of the Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad, Allaan had twice been in a coma and has reportedly vowed to resume fasting if the courts reinstate his detention. He remained hospitalized after ending his hunger strike due to his precarious health condition.
