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Live: Israel-Palestinian factions exchange fire after Khader Adnan death; Sudan's warring sides 'agree to truce'
Israeli and Palestinian factions exchanged fire over Gaza following the death of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan. Meanwhile, Sudan's Rapid Support forces claim to have downed a fighter jet.
9 min read
This live blog has now ended. Follow The New Arab on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for the latest news on the situation in Sudan.
Israeli forces shelled Gaza on Tuesday after rockets from the besieged enclave were fired onto Israeli territory following the death of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan on Tuesday.
There were no injuries from the shelling reported.
Khader Adnan, a prominent Palestinian prisoner died on Tuesday in Israeli custody after a nearly-three-month-long hunger strike, authorities said, the first such fatality in more than three decades.
Adnan, who was awaiting trial, was found unconscious in his cell and taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead after efforts to revive him, Israel's Prisons Service said. He had previously refused the service's medical care, it added. Many have accused Israeli prison authorities of medical neglect of Palestinian detainees.
Khader Adnan, a Palestinian leader and revolutionary who was on the 86th day of his hunger strike against the Israeli policy of administrative detention without charge or trail, has passed away in a Zionist prison. This was his fifth hunger strike. There are no words…
— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) May 2, 2023
Since 2011, Adnan had conducted at least three hunger strikes in protest at detentions without charges by Israel. The tactic has been used by other Palestinian prisoners, sometimes en masse, but the last hunger-striker to die was in 1992.
A lawyer for Adnan accused Israel of medical negligence.
"We demanded he be moved into a civilian hospital where he could be properly followed up (on). Unfortunately, such a demand was met by intransigence and rejection by the Israeli prison authorities," lawyer Jamil Al-Khatib told Reuters.
Adnan, 45, was from Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Islamic Jihad has a limited West Bank presence, but is the second most powerful armed group in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting between rival generals raged on in Sudan Tuesday despite the latest truce, as warnings multiplied of the potential for a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands of refugees.
The bloodshed has gripped Sudan since 15 April when tensions erupted into armed exchanges between regular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
At least 528 have been killed and some 4,600 wounded in the violence, according to the health ministry.
The United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was bracing for "the possibility that over 800,000 people may flee the fighting in Sudan for neighbouring countries".
In Nairobi today to meet with Kenyan and other leaders about the situation in #Sudan. The situation unfolding there since April 15 is catastrophic. We need to find ways to get aid into the country and distribute it to those in need.
— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) May 1, 2023
Top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths arrived in Nairobi on Monday on a mission to find ways to bring relief to the millions of civilians trapped inside Sudan.
"The situation unfolding there (in Sudan) since 15 April is catastrophic," he said on Twitter.
Sudan's turmoil has seen hospitals shelled, humanitarian facilities looted and foreign aid groups forced to suspend most of their operations.
5:43 PM
4:24 PM
Sudanese army chief and RSF leader agree on seven-day truce - South Sudan
Sudanese army chief general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support forces (RSF) leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have agreed in principle on a seven-day truce from 4 May, a statement released by South Sudan's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
BREAKING: South Sudan's foreign ministry says the rival Sudanese generals have agreed to a seven-day truce and will send representatives for peace talks.
— CNN International PR (@cnnipr) May 2, 2023
This is on day 18 of fighting in the country. @LarryMadowo breaks down what this means, live from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/XwTBaQHGpX
According to the statement, the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, stressed the importance of a longer ceasefire and of naming representatives to peace talks.
Both sides agreed to name representatives to the talks, the statement added.
South Sudan was designated as one of the countries to host the talks, and offered to mediate in the conflict in Sudan.
2:18 PM
Sudan's RSF claim to have downed fighter jet
Sudan's Rapid Support Forces announced on Tuesday morning that they had shot down a MiG fighter jet belonging to the Sudanese army.
The RSF said in a statement on Twitter that they had "managed to shoot down a MiG plane belonging to the coup forces and the extremist remnants of the defunct regime. The forces of the putschists launched air raids, on Tuesday morning, on a number of residential areas in Khartoum.
The Rapid Support Forces will continue to resolve any encroachment by the putschists on the positions of our forces or the homes of defenseless citizens, and victory is only from God."
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
— Rapid Support Forces - قوات الدعم السريع (@RSFSudan) May 2, 2023
قوات الدعم السريع
بيان هام
2 مايو 2023
تمكنت قوات الدعم السريع، صباح اليوم الثلاثاء، من إسقاط طائرة من طراز (ميغ) تتبع للقوات الانقلابية وفلول النظام البائد المتطرفة.
وشنت قوات الانقلابيين والفلول غارات بالطائرات، صباح اليوم الثلاثاء، على عدد من المناطق… pic.twitter.com/ON1TeuAy8D
1:28 PM
President Sisi says Egypt will support dialogue in Sudan
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Cairo would provide support for dialogue in Sudan between the rival military factions, but was also "being careful about not interfering in their domestic matters".
Sudan's conflict risks morphing into a broader disaster as Sudan's impoverished neighbours deal with a refugee crunch and fighting hampers aid deliveries in a nation where two-thirds of people already rely on some outside assistance.
"The entire region could be affected," Sisi warned in an interview with a Japanese newspaper on Tuesday as an envoy from Sudan's army chief, who leads one of the warring sides, met Egyptian officials in Cairo.
(Reuters)
12:01 PM
Palestinian Authority calls for Khader Adnan death probe after 'execution' claims
The Palestinian foreign ministry has held Israel fully responsible for the death of prisoner Khader Adnan, calling for an international investigation into what it described as an "execution".
The ministry called for an independent commission to look into the circumstances behind Adnan’s death, "considering that it is part of what prisoners are subject to from abuse, oppression and the robbing of their rights and freedoms" in Israeli jails.
It said that it will submit the file to the International Criminal Court, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Read the full story here.
11:22 AM
More than 430,000 have fled homes amid Sudan fighting: UN
The UN says more than 430,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Sudan.
The fighting, which broke out on 15 April, has caused more than 330,000 people to flee their homes within the country, with over 100,000 others escaping over the borders, the United Nations said Tuesday.
UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, is estimating that more than 800,000 people could potentially flee to neighbouring countries as the conflict continues in Sudan between the army and a paramilitary group.
#Burhan and #Hemeti have both accused each other of being traitors.
— The New Arab Voice (@TheNewArabVoice) May 2, 2023
Listen to the latest episode of @TheNewArabVoice to hear how their relationship broke down. https://t.co/C6jhemrpf1
The UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a situation report that "the total estimate of displaced individuals across Sudan has reached 334,053".
"About 72 percent, roughly 240,000 of these new internal displacements were reported in West and South Darfur alone," spokesman Paul Dillon told reporters.
The number of people displaced in the last two weeks "exceeds all conflict-related displacement in Sudan in 2022", he added.
9:47 AM
Longtime Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa transferred to Ramle Prison Clinic
Israeli authorities have transferred Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa from Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon to Ramle Prison Hospital, reported The New Arab's Arabic sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
"After spending 37 days in Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, and performing an operation to remove part of his right lung, the occupation prisons authority transferred the prisoner Walid Daqqa yesterday evening, Sunday, 30 April 2023, to Ramle Prison Hospital," his family said in a statement on Monday evening.
Walid Daqqa is another Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike.
— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) May 1, 2023
Daqqa is seriously ill. He has pneumonia and bone marrow cancer, and suffered a stroke in February.
He has been in israel's prisons since 1986. That's 38 years. How can one do this to another human being? pic.twitter.com/f5ww9ClYUn
"Accordingly, the family and the campaign affirm their only demand, which is the immediate release of the prisoner Walid Daqqa so that he can receive treatment without restriction, and holds the prison authority fully responsible for his life in the absence of any treatment environment for the rare cancer he suffers from," the statement added.
Daqqa, 61, is from the town of Baqa al-Gharbia in the occupied Palestinian territories. He has been detained since March 1986, and lost his father during his years in prison.
Daqqa is considered one of the most prominent prisoners in the Israel's prisons.
9:35 AM
Rockets fired into Israel from Gaza
Our fight is continuing and the enemy will realise once again that its crimes will not pass without a response," Islamic Jihad, which preaches Israel's destruction, said in a statement following Adnan's death.
Three rockets were launched from Gaza toward Israeli border communities, falling in open areas but setting off sirens which sent residents rushing to shelters, Israel's military said.
Khader Adnan died this morning, and afterwards two rockets from Gaza were fired in response, likely Islamic Jihad. Only 45, this was his fifth hunger strike. He had been held in detention without trial many times over many years. https://t.co/6A5ypCRz2T
— Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין (@MairavZ) May 2, 2023
Israel said it was cancelling a military drill that had been planned for the Gaza Strip periphery on Tuesday "pursuant to a situational assessment". In the West Bank, Israeli authorities said a man was wounded in a shooting near a Jewish settlement.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Gaza rockets reported by Israel or the West Bank incident. Israel and Islamic Jihad fought a brief war across Gaza's border in August.
(Reuters)
9:24 AM
Who was Khader Adnan?
Palestinian prisoner, Khader Adnan, 44, is dead after 86 days of hunger strike in protest against his detention in the lsraeli jails. pic.twitter.com/VrlWe4GY7y
— Muhammad Smiry 🇵🇸 (@MuhammadSmiry) May 2, 2023
- Senior figure in the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad
- 45-years-old from Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
- Spent nearly 3 months on hunger strike in an Israeli jail before he died on Tuesday
- Adnan had been arrested by Israel 12 times, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Association, spending around eight years in prison, mostly under so-called "administrative detention" - is Israel's practice of incarceration without trial or charge, alleging that a person plans to commit a future offense
- Has launched several hunger strikes during his time in prison, including a 55-day strike in 2015
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