After an 86-day hunger strike in custody, a 44-year-old leader of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Khadar Adnan, died while refusing medical attention. Adnan has been arrested 13 times in the past years over his involvement in terrorist activity, and he immediately responded to his February arrest by beginning a hunger strike. (Adnan was also a major organizer of the massive prison hunger strike planned earlier this year which was cancelled after an agreement was reached with guards.)

Despite official reports that Adnan refused to see a doctor during the strike, the PIJ and separate terrorist organization Hamas called Adnan’s death an Israeli “assassination” and accused Israeli prison guards of medical negligence. Terror operatives in the Gaza Strip responded to the death by firing over 100 rockets at Israeli border communities.

Since Adnan was a major leader of the PIJ, it is possible that Palestinians will rally around his “martyrdom,” and an escalation in violence will be the result.  (Already Tuesday morning, in a supposedly unrelated event, a Palestinian terrorist opened fire on Israeli cars in Samaria, lightly wounding two.)

Please pray for peace in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. Please pray for Israeli intelligence and security forces to apprehend terror cells and suspects. Lastly, please pray for healing for the two victims of today’s shooting, as well as the continued recovery of those recently injured as a result of terrorist activity.