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May 2 (UPI) -- The death of a high-profile Palestinian prisoner inside an Israeli jail Tuesday sparked retaliatory rocket attacks, for which both Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas took credit, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed. At least 12 civilians were injured after at least 32 rocket attacks.
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The IDF said it countered with rocket attacks of its own, striking weapon manufacturing sites, military compounds and "underground terrorist tunnels belonging to terrorist organizations."
Sheikh Khader Adnan was found "unconscious" Tuesday in his cell at Ramla prison in central Israel, after spending 87 days on a hunger strike in protest of his incarceration.
Adnan, a Palestinian, was arrested on Feb. 5 on terrorism-related charges and also refused medical treatment, according to the Israel Prison Service.
He was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors tried to revive him. He was pronounced dead.
Mourners gathered Tuesday at Adnan's home in the occupied West Bank as Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel of being responsible for Adnan's death.
"The Israeli occupation and its prison administration carried out a deliberate assassination against the prisoner Khader Adnan by rejecting his request for release, neglecting him medically and keeping him in his cell despite the seriousness of his health condition," Shtayyeh said in a statement.
Adnan was accused of being a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad -- the second-most powerful radical group in the Gaza Strip.
The group's leadership warned Tuesday that Israel would pay "the highest price" before several rockets were fired toward Israel from the Hamas-controlled region, although the first missiles landed in remote areas with no casualties reported
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also called for an investigation by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Adnan, a Palestinian activist, had been in and out of Israeli prisons over the past two decades while carrying out at least five hunger strikes, which turned him into a cause celebre among inmates and the country's militants.
Adnan was due to go to trial this month on charges that included suspicion of membership in a terrorist organization, support for terrorism and incitement, which one Palestinian advocacy group described as "spurious charges intended to further suppress Palestinian activists."
A doctor who visited Adnan last week said his condition had deteriorated to a state where he was weak, severely emaciated and weighed less than 125 pounds.
Israeli authorities denied that Adnan was neglected while in custody, saying he had turned down nutritional supplements and additional medical care, which led to his death.
"He decided to go on a hunger strike and he refused any medical examination and any medical treatment," Israel Prison Service representative Hana Herbst said. "We couldn't have done anything different other than forcing him to take medical treatment, which we can't do."
Israeli doctors had warned in recent days that Adnan's demise was "imminent" and urged prison officials to transfer him to a hospital. Adnan's widow, Randa Mousa, said Adnan wanted to be transferred to a civilian hospital, which prison officials refused to allow.
A senior Israeli official later said a military appeals court refused to release Adnan from detention based "solely on the merit of his medical condition."
The 44-year-old, who was reportedly a father to nine children, conducted his first hunger strike in 2011, which lasted 66 days and inspired other Palestinian prisoners to use hunger protests to call attention to administrative detentions in Israel.
The practice of administrative detentions allows Israel's hardline conservative government to keep some suspects locked up indefinitely without due process.
