Israel under fire after Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan dies of hunger strike

Palestinians are calling for confrontations with Israeli forces after the senior leader of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement Khader Adnan died at an Israeli prison following an 87-day hunger strike.

Stores and schools in the central West Bank cities of Ramallah and al-Bireh remained shut on Tuesday, and laborers refused to go to work.

An-Najah National University in the city of Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, also suspended classes in solidarity. The Islamic society of the university announced the postponement of the graduation ceremony that had originally been scheduled for today.

People in the cities of Jenin and Qalqilya also observed a general strike in commemoration of Adnan and in protest at the Israeli regime’s repressive measures against the inhumane mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners.

Confrontations also broke out between young Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Over the past 20 years, Adnan had been arrested a dozen times by Israeli forces for his political and anti-occupation activities. He spent a total of eight years behind bars.

He went on hunger strike four times during his detentions, the longest of which was a 67-day period in 2012 that resulted in his release and inspired other Palestinian prisoners held under administrative detention to follow suit.

In 2015, he once again went on a hunger strike for 56 days to protest his detention. He did the same in 2018 for 58 days.

Adnan was also arrested in 2021 and was transferred to administrative detention. He went on a hunger strike for 25 days at the time.

Hundreds of inmates have been apparently incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention.

Human rights organizations say Israel violates all the rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention. They say Israel's so-called administrative detention violates their right to due process since the evidence is withheld from prisoners while they are held for lengthy periods without being charged, tried, or convicted.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express outrage at their detention.

Israeli jail authorities keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards.

Palestinian inmates have also been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.

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