JERUSALEM, May 2 (Reuters) – A Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader died in Israeli custody on Tuesday after an 87-day hunger strike, authorities said, the first such death in more than three decades, and tensions in the Gaza Strip they increased as the faction swore revenge.
Khader Adnan, who was awaiting trial, was found unconscious in his cell and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead after efforts to revive him, the Israel Prison Service said. He had refused any medical evaluation or treatment, he added.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Gaza to demonstrate in support of Adnan and mourn his death, and the Israeli army said three rockets were fired at Israel from the strip.
Since 2011, Adnan had gone on at least three hunger strikes to protest Israeli detention without charge. The tactic has been used by other Palestinian prisoners, sometimes en masse, but none have died since 1992.
Disputing the Prison Service’s account, Adnan’s lawyer, Jamil Al-Khatib, and a doctor from a human rights group who met with him recently accused the Israeli authorities of withholding medical care.
“We demanded that he be transferred to a civilian hospital where he could receive proper follow-up. Unfortunately, such a demand was met with intransigence and rejection,” Al-Khatib told Reuters.
Adnan, 45, was from Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Islamic Jihad sources said he was one of its political leaders. The faction has a limited presence in Judea and Samaria, but is the second most powerful armed group in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where Israeli forces fought a brief war against it last August.
Lina Qasem-Hassan of Physicians for Human Rights in Israel said she saw Adnan on April 23, by which time he had lost 88 pounds (40 kg) and was having trouble breathing but was conscious.
“His death could have been prevented,” Qasem Hassan told Reuters, saying several Israeli hospitals refused to admit Adnan after he made brief visits to emergency rooms.
The Prisons Service said hospitalization had not been an option as Adnan had refused “even a preliminary inspection”.
‘THE FIGHT CONTINUES’
“Our fight continues and the enemy will realize once again that his crimes will not go unanswered,” Islamic Jihad, which preaches the destruction of Israel, said in a statement.
Three rockets fired from Gaza towards Israeli border communities fell in open areas but set off sirens that sent residents to shelters, the Israeli army said.
Israel said it was canceling a military drill that had been planned for the Gaza periphery “according to an assessment of the situation” and was putting staff at security prisons on high alert. In the West Bank, Israeli authorities said a man was wounded in a shooting near a Jewish settlement.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Israel’s reported Gaza rockets or the West Bank incident.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Association, Adnan had been arrested by Israel 12 times, spending around eight years in prison, mostly under so-called “administrative detention” or detention without charge.
Israel says such arrests are necessary when evidence cannot be disclosed in court due to the need to keep intelligence sources secret. The Palestinians say they deny due process of law.
This time, Adnan was arrested and charged in an Israeli military court on charges including links to an outlaw group and inciting violence, the Prisons Service said.
Reporting by Emily Rose, Nidal Al Mughrabi; Edited by Kim Coghill
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