JERUSALEM (AP) – A high-profile Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody Tuesday after a nearly three-month hunger strike, Israel’s prison service announced, at a time of heightened tensions. between Israel and the Palestinians.
Khader Adnan, a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group, began conducting prolonged hunger strikes more than a decade ago, introducing a new form of protests against mass detentions in Israel of the Palestinians without charges or trials. On Tuesday, the 45-year-old became the first long-term hunger striker to die in Israeli custody.
Palestinians have called for a general strike in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and protests are expected later in the day. Palestinian militants fired a volley of rockets from Gaza into empty Israeli fields. Islamic Jihad said in a statement that “our fight continues and will not stop.”
Adnan’s death comes as Israel is led by its most right-wing government ever.
Palestinian prisons and prisoners are overseen by Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultra-nationalist politician who has previously tightened restrictions on Palestinian prisoners, including shortening their shower time and closing the prison bakery.
Ben-Gvir said on Tuesday that prison officials should show “zero-tolerance to hunger strikes and riots in security prisons” and ordered inmates to be kept in their cells.
As Israeli-Palestinian violence escalated, the number of administrative detainees rose to more than 1,000 last year, the highest number in two decades.
For administrative detainees, hunger strikes are often a last resort. Many have been on hunger strikes for several months, often becoming seriously ill. Previous Israeli governments have sometimes agreed to some of their demands to avoid deaths in custody.
This time, warnings about Adnan’s deteriorating health were ignored, said the advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
The group and Adnan’s lawyer said they have asked Israeli authorities to move him from his cell to a hospital where his condition can be best monitored. The rights group said a doctor who visited Adnan a few days ago warned that his life was in danger.
“We lay the responsibility for his death at the feet of the Israeli authorities,” said Dana Moss, from the rights group. “Hunger strikes are one of the few non-violent tools left to Palestinians as they fight against Israel’s unfair legal system, placed within the context of a long occupation and a regime of apartheid.”
Dawood Shahab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, called Adnan’s death “a total crime, for which the Israeli occupation bears full and direct responsibility.”
In the West Bank, Mohammed Shtayyeh, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority government is also responsible for Israel. He described Adnan’s death as “premeditated murder by denying his request to be released, neglecting him medically, and keeping him in his cell despite the seriousness of his health condition.”
Israel’s prison service said Adnan was accused of “involvement in terrorist activities.” He is said to be in a prison medical facility, but has refused medical treatment “until the last moment” while legal proceedings continue. It said that he was found unconscious in his cell early on Tuesday and was transferred to the hospital where he was declared dead.
Around 200 people gathered outside Adnan’s home in the occupied West Bank town of Arraba, holding signs bearing his image and calling for revenge. Adnan’s widow, Randa Musa, told those gathered outside that “we don’t want a single drop of bloodshed” in response to his death.
“We don’t want to fire rockets, or the next strike on Gaza,” he told the crowd.
Palestinian prisoners are viewed as national heroes and any perceived threat to them while in Israeli detention could spark tensions or violence. Israel sees Adnan and other Palestinian prisoners as security threats accused of involvement in deadly attacks or plots.
Over the past decade, Adnan has become a household name in the Palestinian territories, as a symbol of persistence against the open-ended occupation of Israel, now in its 56th year. He has gone on several long hunger strikes over the years, including a 66-day protest in 2012, and two more strikes in 2015 and 2018 that lasted 56 and 58 days respectively. Israel released Adnan after the 2015 strike.
He is credited with making hunger strikes a tool in the protests of Palestinian prisoners and a useful bargaining chip against the 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 administrative detention.
The number of administrative detainees grew last year as Israel carried out almost nightly arrest raids in the West Bank following a series of deadly Palestinian attacks on Israel in early 2022.
Israel says the controversial tactic will help authorities prevent attacks and prevent dangerous militants from disclosing material for security reasons.
Palestinians and rights groups say the system is widely abused and denies due process, with the secret nature of the evidence making it impossible for administrative detainees or their lawyers to mount a defense.
Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank have been locked in fighting for the past year. About 250 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and 49 people died in Palestinian attacks by Israelis.
On Tuesday, Israeli officials said an Israeli man was lightly wounded in a suspected Palestinian shooting attack in the West Bank.
