Tue 02 May 2023:
Palestinian prisoner and hunger striker Khader Adnan has died in Israeli custody after being on hunger strike for nearly three months.
Shortly after Israel’s prison service announced his death, a volley of rockets from the coastal enclave Gaza were fired into southern Israel.
Adnan, who was affiliated with the armed group Islamic Jihad, had gone on hunger strikes several times after previous arrests.
That included a 55-day strike in 2015 to protest his arrest under so-called administrative detention, in which suspects are held indefinitely without charge or trial.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has described the death of Khader Adnan, who was arrested in the occupied West Bank, as a “deliberate assassination”.
“… by rejecting his request for his release, neglecting him medically and keeping him in his cell, despite the seriousness of his health condition,” the premier said in a statement.
Doctor’s rights group says risk to Adnan’s life ignored
Physicians for Human Rights Israel says a doctor who had visited Adnan several days ago had written a medical opinion outlining the immediate risk to his life, but that those entreaties were ignored.
“Khader Adnan chose a hunger strike as a last resort, a non-violent means of protest against the oppression of himself and his people,” the group said in a statement.
🇵🇸 WATCH: Khader Adnan's son Ali leads a march in Arrabeh, the hometown of his father who died during hunger strike in Israeli prison. pic.twitter.com/AstHSYTyV0
— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) May 2, 2023
Israel to blame for Adnan’s death: PLO
The secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization says he holds Israeli authorities “fully responsible” for Adnan’s death, blaming it on “negligence and forced detention”.
“My deepest condolences to his family, and we ask God to bless him with the martyrs and friends,” Hussein al-Sheikh posted on Twitter.
Adnan’s wife calls for body to be released
Al Jazeera’s Samir Abu Shammala reports from Jenin that Adnan’s wife says she is proud of her husband’s “martyrdom” and calls for his body to be released immediately.
“She demanded the Israel hand over her husband’s body and not subject it to an autopsy by Israeli authorities,” he said.
Adnan’s wife, Randa Mousa, says at a news conference outside their house in the occupied West Bank town of Arrabeh, that her husband’s death is a point of “pride”.
“I was hoping that he would be with us today, … but it was his fate from God that he be martyred,” she said.
Mousa said despite Adnan saying he was dying, no one believed him until his eventual death.
“This will not be a funeral home. We will only accept those who want to congratulate us,” she said.
The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (#OIC) held #Israel, the occupying power, fully responsible for the death of the Palestinian prisoner #Khader_Adnan held in its occupation prisons under the so-called administrative detention, pic.twitter.com/oZd86lDAg5
— OIC (@OIC_OCI) May 2, 2023
Palestinians protest in Ramallah
Twenty-six-year-old Shurouq Khalil at a protest in Ramallah says she is demonstrating in solidarity with Adnan’s family and other Palestinian prisoners.
“We have stood here in the past to tell him we are with you, to raise his voice and make it heard. And we are here today,” she told Al Jazeera.
“If the situation stays like this, and tomorrow if others go on hunger strike, the [Israeli] occupation will feel as though it’s normal for Palestinians … to die while on hunger strike. We have to move before anyone else.”
PHOTOS: Adnan Khader’s wife, Randa Mousa, says at a news conference outside their house in the occupied West Bank town of Arrabeh, that her husband’s death is a point of “pride”.
“This will not be a funeral home. We will only accept those who want to congratulate us,” she said. pic.twitter.com/yYnsBGxojW— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) May 2, 2023
Islamic Jihad says Israel will ‘pay the price’
The armed group Islamic Jihad warns Israel after Adnan’s death that it will “pay the price for this crime”.
“The free hero, Khader Adnan, died as a martyr in a crime committed by the enemy in front of the world,” the group said in a statement.
Hamas spokesman calls Khader’s death a ‘cold-blooded execution’
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem says Adnan’s death will be written in the “glory pages of our people”.
“What happened reveals the extent of terrorism and fascism of the so-called Prison Service, which deliberately killed Sheikh Khader in this way,” Qasem said in a statement.
“This crime represents a cold-blooded execution carried out by the Prison Service against the martyred prisoner Khader Adnan. … The path of revolution and resistance will escalate throughout Palestine in response to this crime and all the crimes of Israeli occupation.”
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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