The counterstrikes occurred on Tuesday, with Hamas claiming that Israeli forces had hit their positions during the aggression, prompting the group to fire multiple rockets towards the occupied territories.
Palestinian resistance movements have also claimed responsibility for earlier rocket attacks against the occupied territories that occurred following the death of Khader Adnan, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas' fellow Gaza-based resistance movement, who was found unconscious in his cell in Israeli detention.
Palestinian media outlets report that the resistance groups have been forced to fire at Israeli warplanes that continue to attack northern and southern parts of the coastal sliver. On Tuesday, hundreds of people marched in Arraba, gathered outside Khader Adnan's home and held him responsible for Adnan's death. Adnan, who staged an 87-day hunger strike to protest his incarceration, was arrested on February 5 on charges of incitement and membership of a terrorist organization. This marks the first death of a Palestinian prisoner during a hunger strike in over three decades.
"We were talking about Khader Adnan when he first started a hunger strike to protest against administrative detention," said Thamer Saba'na, a specialist in prisoners' affairs. "Now we are talking about Khader Adnan, the martyr, the first martyr to protest against arrest." Following the announcement of Adnan's death, Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched rocket attacks against Israel. The Israeli military reports that four rockets were intercepted, while others fell in open areas.