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| Resistance fighters fire rocket into Israel to avenge Palestinian prisoner’s death |
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.jpg) Gaza resistance fighters on Tuesday fired a rocket into Israel for the first time in three months, rattling a cross-border truce that has held since Israel's military offensive against the besieged coastal territory.
Israel closed Gaza's main cargo crossing until further notice, AP reported.
Fighters claiming affiliation with the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, took responsibility.
They said in an email to journalists that they fired the rocket to avenge the death of a Palestinian in Israeli custody. It was impossible to independently verify the claim of responsibility.
The detainee, Arafat Jaradat, 30, died over the weekend after interrogation by Israel's Shin Bet security services. Palestinian officials, citing an autopsy, said the detainee was tortured to death.
Jaradat's death has sparked protests in the West Bank, including near the town of Bethlehem on Monday.
Two Palestinian teens, ages 13 and 16, were wounded in a confrontation with Israeli soldiers. The older boy was transferred to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital after being shot in the head and was in critical condition Tuesday, hooked up to a respirator, officials said.
The rocket from Gaza landed south of the Israeli city of Ashkelon early Tuesday, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. The rocket caused damage to a road but no injuries, he said.
It was the first rocket fired from Gaza since Israel's military offensive in the coastal strip last November.
Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and artillery fire left about 170 Palestinians, including many women and children, dead and over 1,200 others injured from November 14, 2012 to November 21, 2012. An Egypt-mediated ceasefire agreement, which took effect on November 21, ended the eight-day Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.
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