JERUSALEM (AFP) – A senior Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli custody after a nearly three-month hunger strike, the Israel Prison Service said. His death sparked rockets fired from Gaza, fueling fears of further escalation.
Islamic Jihad group leader Khader Adnan helped establish the practice of prolonged hunger strikes by individual prisoners as a form of protest against Israel’s mass incarceration of Palestinians. On Tuesday, the 45-year-old died in Israeli custody as the first long-term hunger his striker.
In response to his death, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired 22 rockets of him into populated areas in southern Israel, where he severely injured a 25-year-old man and killed another at a construction site in the town of Sderoto. two of him were seriously injured, Israeli emergency services said. Confirm that all three are foreigners. Their nationalities were not immediately clear.
Air raid sirens sounded, and Israeli local councils opened public bunkers. Records show that the reverberation and debris punctured the road and charred the car. Four missiles were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, officials said.
A coalition of Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip, led by the enclave’s Hamas ruler, said: “This is the first response to this heinous crime and will elicit a response from our people. Palestinians called for a general strike in the West Bank and Gaza, and protesters stormed Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied territories and threw stones at Israeli soldiers. Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at a crowd gathered at the northern entrance to the West Bank city of Ramallah. Early Tuesday morning, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired another volley of rockets that landed in an empty Israeli field, Islamic Jihad said, “the struggle continues and will not stop.”
The group and Adnan’s lawyers said they had asked Israeli authorities to take Adnan from his cell to a hospital so they could best monitor his condition. I warned him that his life was in danger. Islamic Jihad spokesman Dawood Shahab called Adnan’s death “a complete crime for which the Israeli occupation is fully and directly responsible.”
In the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh also condemned Israel. He described Adnan’s death as “a premeditated assassination by refusing his demands for release, medically ignoring him, and keeping him in solitary confinement despite his grave health.” depicted.
About 200 people gathered outside Adnan’s house in the occupied West Bank city of Arava, holding signs with Adnan’s photo and demanding revenge. Adnan’s widow, Randa Musa, told those gathered outside that she “didn’t want a single drop of bloodshed” in response to his death.
“We don’t want rockets or another attack on Gaza,” she told the crowd.
Palestinian prisoners are considered national heroes, and being seen as a threat to them while in Israeli custody can cause tension and violence. Israel views Adnan and other Palestinian prisoners as security threats, and has been accused of deadly attacks and involvement in conspiracies.
Over the past decade, Adnan has become a household name within the Palestinian Territory as a powerful symbol of resistance to the indefinite Israeli occupation, now in his 56th year. Over the years, including his 66-day protest in 2012, and his two further strikes in 2015 and 2018, he has long hung out for 56 days and his strikes lasting 58 days, respectively. I’ve been to several times. Israel released Adnan after a 2015 strike.
