Khader Adnan, a Palestinian detainee who was on a prolonged hunger strike, passed away on Tuesday after 87 days without food. Adnan had become a symbol of Palestinian resistance to Israeli detention policies and had refused medical checks while in detention. He was found dead in his cell, following his hunger strike, according to the Israeli Prison Service. The Palestinian Prisoners Society also announced Adnan’s death, accusing Israel of assassinating him. The Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, posthumously promoted him to commander, stating that Adnan had died due to the Zionist occupation's responsibility.
Adnan was detained in February on suspicion of membership in a terrorist organization, support for terrorism, and incitement, Israeli authorities said. However, he had not been tried at the time of his death. Following the news of his death, Palestinian political parties announced a general strike in the West Bank on Tuesday, with the closure of courts, schools, universities, and shops. Palestinian detainees in Ofer Prison began a general hunger strike to protest his death.
Adnan's hunger strikes from jail had become a rallying cry for Palestinians, who staged multiple rallies in the West Bank and Gaza in support of him. He had previously gone on a 66-day hunger strike in 2012, which was the longest known hunger strike by a Palestinian detainee in Israeli prisons. Adnan had been arrested at least 11 times since 2004 and held five hunger strikes. In 2015, he went on a 55-day hunger strike before Israeli authorities released him.
Israel currently holds 4,900 Palestinian detainees in its prisons, with 1,000 of them held in administrative detention without charge, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. Administrative detention is a controversial Israeli military procedure that allows authorities to hold detainees indefinitely on security grounds, without the need for charges or a trial. Adnan spent a total of eight years in Israeli jails, mostly under administrative detention.