Palestinian Islamic Jihad figure dies in custody

It is a death that will further inflame tensions between Israel and Palestine. Khader Adnane, a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Islamic Jihad, died on Tuesday May 2, report the Israel Prison Service, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Prisoners Club. He had been on a hunger strike for nearly 90 days to protest his detention by Israel.

The president of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, Qaddoura Fares, told AFP that this was the first Palestinian detainee to die in detention in Israel from a hunger strike. Khader Adnane had started this action on February 5 and “refused to undergo medical examinations and to receive treatment”according to the Israeli Prison Service.

A symbol for the Palestinians

Khader Adnane, a native of the northern occupied West Bank, had been imprisoned numerous times by Israel and had gone on several hunger strikes, becoming a symbol for the Palestinians. News of his death was followed by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

On Friday, his wife Randa Moussa explained to AFP that he refused “any assistance, any medical examination”. “He is in a cell where the conditions of detention are very difficult, she added. They [l’administration israélienne] refused to transfer him to a civilian hospital and to allow visits by his lawyer.” The armed organization Islamic Jihad is considered a movement “terrorist” by Israel, the United States and the European Union.