MIDEAST-CRISIS/ISRAEL-SYRIA Islamic Jihad denies Israeli accusation of committing attack

Record ID: 143116

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/ISRAEL-SYRIA Islamic Jihad denies Israeli accusation of committing attack
  • Date: 21st August 2015
  • Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (AUGUST 21, 2015) (REUTERS) ISLAMIC JIHAD SUPPORTERS DURING FRIDAY PRAYER IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN HUNGER-STRIKER IMAM TALKING TO WORSHIPPERS VARIOUS OF ISLAMIC JIHAD SUPPORTERS AT FRIDAY PRAYER SUPPORTERS PRAYING MEN DURING PROTEST HOLDING MESSAGES SUPPORTING PRISONER ON HUNGER STRIKE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SENIOR ISLAMIC JIHAD OFFICIAL, MOHAMMAD AL-HINDI,
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Gaza
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVANJY59Y66CG0U3VPZXKM4TSJW
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Islamic Jihad supporters in Gaza held a prayer on Friday (August 21) in front of the Red Cross building in support of a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike as the movement distanced itself from a rocket attack in northern Israel.
    Palestinian detainee Mohammed Allan ended his 65-day hunger strike against his detention without trial on Wednesday (August 19) after the Israeli Supreme Court suspended his arrest warrant, his lawyer said.
    Allan has sustained brain damage as a result of his hunger strike and is hospitalized in Israel in critical condition. The court said that in his current condition he poses no threat and therefore suspended his arrest warrant.
    The 31-year-old Islamic Jihad activist's case was being monitored closely by opposing sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which had looked likely to boil over into new violence if Allan were to have died as a result of his strike.
    After the prayer asked to respond to Israel's account, senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammad Al-Hindi stopped short of confirming members of the group had been hit, telling reporters in Gaza: "If the reports are correct, Islamic Jihad knows how to defend its men."
    "Our party (Islamic Jihad) denied this (Israeli) accusation and confirmed that it is only active in Palestine. Israel wants to mix the papers. There is information released by the Israeli enemy but what is released from our side is that the party (Islamic Jihad) did not target any site and what happened has nothing to do with it," added Al-Hindi.
    Israel said it killed at least five Palestinian militants in an air strike on the Syrian Golan Heights earlier on Friday, after cross-border rocket fire from Syria prompted the heaviest Israeli bombardment since the start of Syria's four-year-old civil war.
    An Israeli defence official said the people killed in Friday's air strike were Palestinian militants from the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad.
    A Syrian army source said the strike, at 10.30 am (0730 GMT), hit a car in a village in the Syrian Golan Heights, killing five civilians. State television quoted the source as saying it took place near Quneitra, close to the Israeli-occupied section of the Golan region.
    It followed heavy overnight strikes by Israel against Syrian army posts in the border area in retaliation for what Israel said were rockets fired from Syria by Islamic Jihad.
    The rockets landed near an Israeli village, setting off fires but causing no casualties.
    Islamic Jihad denied it was involved.
    Israel's overnight retaliation killed one Syrian soldier and wounded seven, the Syrian army source said, although it appeared to be the heaviest Israeli bombardment for years, with dozens of raids against Syrian targets.
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces "struck the squad that carried out the firing and the Syrian forces that enabled it to."
    He also blamed Iran for ordering the rocket fire into Israel, underlining Israel's concern that a nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers had emboldened the Islamic Republic.
    "Those countries hastening to embrace Iran should know that an Iranian commander gave sponsorship and instruction to the squad that fired on Israel," he said in a written statement.
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