The death of Palestinian prisoner Jader Adnan, who had been on hunger strike for 86 days in an Israeli jail, has raised tensions between Israel and Palestinian militias. In its first reaction to the death of one of its best-known leaders in the West Bank, Islamic Jihad launched several projectiles from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel without causing injuries. Israeli authorities reported this morning that they found Adnan unconscious in his cell from the Nitzan prison in the center of the country. After being transferred to a nearby hospital, health actions failed to save the member of Islamic Jihad who had been arrested on February 5. “The prisoner under accusation of various charges of terrorism had refused to undergo medical tests and receive medical treatment in the center and preferred to go on a hunger strike to impose his release,” says the Israeli Prison Service, which fears reprisals from prisoners. either with attacks or burning of cells. “Sheikh and Commander Adnan died for a crime whose responsibility falls on the shoulders of the occupation that arrested him and ignored his suffering,” says Islamic Jihad, an organization considered terrorist by Israel, the Union European and United States. “Our fight will continue and the enemy will realize once again that his crimes will not go unanswered. The resistance will continue with all its strength and determination,” he warned in a statement that accompanied the three rockets and a mortar shell that hit a Open area near Kibbutz Saad in southern Israel. Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, denounced what it calls “cold-blooded execution” warning that this could cause an escalation.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) also accuses Israel. Their spokesmen demand from Ramallah a commission of investigation and indicate that they will take the case before the International Criminal Court. Likewise, the ANP decreed a general strike after what it defines as a “deliberate crime.” “We had warned Israel of the deterioration of Adnan’s health situation and the risk to his life. We had requested his urgent transfer to a hospital so that he would be under observation but unfortunately the prison authorities refused,” explains his lawyer Jamil Al Khatib who denounces “negligence” and confirms that for almost 3 months he only drank water. “Adnan chose this option to regain his freedom,” he concludes in what is considered the first death of a prisoner on hunger strike in recent decades. Adnan, 45, from the small town of Arrabe in northern West Bank, became a symbol not only of Islamic Jihad but of Palestinians in general after having been arrested twelve times (the first time almost 20 years ago) and above all for having held five hunger strikes in an Israeli jail. In fact, he was considered the “father” of this type of protest as risky as it was in the media. On most occasions, to end the so-called “administrative detention” to which he was subjected. A practice, criticized by local and international NGOs, whereby the Israeli security services make a temporary arrest without reporting the charges or bringing him to trial. In the past, Adnan has ceased his hunger strikes after the Israeli authorities decided not to extend it. his detention basically due to the fear that his death would cause riots in prisons, attacks from Gaza and attacks in the West Bank and Israel. In 2015, the Jihad spokesperson went on a hunger strike for 55 days. Three years earlier, he reached 66 days in an action that made him famous and admired in the West Bank and Gaza as a “symbol of the fight against the occupation and in favor of the Palestinian prisoners.” For the Israelis, “a terrorist who encouraged attacks.” On February 5, Adnan was arrested and was to be tried starting this month on charges of belonging to a terrorist group, supporting terrorism and inciting violence. In the last months before his arrest, he showed his support for the attacks by militants from Jenin and Nablus against Israelis in the area occupied by the Israeli Army in the 1967 war. The northern West Bank is the main stronghold of Jihad In the last year, Hamas and other militias have been the usual scene of armed attacks, raids and clashes between Palestinian and Israeli armed forces. Islamic Jihad is the Palestinian armed group most identified with Iran and its leaders are usually in Tehran, Damascus or Beirut. According to Israeli security sources, every year he receives tens of millions of dollars from Iran.
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