A senior figure in the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, Khader Adnan, has died in an Israeli jail after going on a hunger strike for 86 days.
The Israel Prison Service (IPS) announced that he was found unconscious early on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. He was taken to hospital but attempts to resuscitate him failed. The IPS added that he had refused to undergo medical tests and get treatment.
After the death was announced, militants fired at least three rockets from the Gaza Strip, with no one hurt. Around 200 people gathered outside Adnan’s home in the occupied West Bank town of Arraba, holding signs bearing his image and called for revenge.
Islamic Jihad, which is based in the Gaza Strip, had earlier warned Israel would “pay a heavy price” should he die in jail.
Khader Adnan, a leader in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, is the first Palestinian prisoner to die since Palestinian inmates began staging protracted hunger strikes about a decade ago. He had been charged with belonging to a terrorist group and incitement and had been due to stand trial this month.
Adnan was from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, and had been in and out of Israeli detention over the past two decades.
Adnan began his strike shortly after being arrested on February 5, 2023. Over the years, he has been repeatedly arrested by Israel and became a symbol for steadfastness in the face of Israel’s occupation when he began staging lengthy hunger strikes just over a decade ago.
Among his six hunger strikes was a 66-day protest in 2012, and two other strikes in 2015 and 2018 that lasted 56 and 58 days respectively. Israel released Adnan after the 2015 strike. He is credited with turning hunger strikes into a recurring tool for protest among Palestinian detainees and a useful bargaining chip against Israeli authorities.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents former and current prisoners, Adnan was arrested 12 times and spent about eight years in Israeli prisons, most of that time under so-called administrative detention, in which suspects are held indefinitely without charge or trial.
Before his death, his wife Randa Mousa said he was “refusing any support, refusing medical examinations, he is in a cell with very difficult detention conditions”.
Israel Blamed For Adnan’s Death
The fate of Palestinian prisoners in Israel is a top issue for the Palestinians, who hold Israel responsible for their well-being.
“Hunger strikes are one of the few nonviolent tools left to Palestinians as they battle against Israel’s unfair legal system, set within a context of long term occupation and a regime of apartheid,” said Dana Moss. “We lay the responsibility for his death at the feet of the Israeli authorities,” Moss added.
Dawood Shahab, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, called Adnan’s death “a full-fledged crime, for which the Israeli occupation bears full and direct responsibility.”
Palestinian groups called for a general strike in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and in cities across the West Bank on Tuesday, with schools and business closing for what organizers called a day of “general mourning.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist minister in charge of prisons, raised the alert level in those facilities in what his office described as a precautionary measure against riots.
Ben-Gvir has previously tightened restrictions on the Palestinian inmates, including shortening their shower time and closing prison bakeries. He called on prison officials to exhibit “zero-tolerance toward hunger strikes and unrest in security prisons” and ordered prisoners be confined to their cells.
According to the Israeli human rights group, HaMoked, Israel is currently holding over 1,000 Palestinian detainees without charge or trial, the highest number since 2003.
Several Palestinians have gone on prolonged hunger strike in recent years to protest being held in administrative detention. In most cases, Israel has eventually released them after their health significantly deteriorated. Many have suffered irreparable neurological damage.
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