2023-P

May 02, 2023: Khader Adnan, 45, died at an Israeli prison after 87 days of hunger strike demanding his freedom as he was held under Administrative Detention orders without charges or trial.

Adnan’s death came on the 87th day of a hunger strike which he began on February 5th, the day Israeli soldiers abducted him and kept him held without charges.

This was the 12th time Adnan had been abducted and imprisoned by Israeli forces. He spent a total of eight years of his life behind bars in Israeli military prisons — most of that time in so-called ‘administrative detention’, an illegal practice used by Israeli martial authorities to hold Palestinians for extended periods without any charges.

Israeli authorities refused to allow Khader Adnan’s wife and children to see him, even as his health condition deteriorated severely in his last days, and refused the repeated requests by Adnan’s lawyer to have him transferred out of the notoriously ill-equipped Ramla Prison clinic into a civilian hospital.

Khader Adnan, whose full name is Khader Adnan Mohammad Mousa, was considered one of the most prominent Palestinian political prisoners. He went on extended hunger strikes on five previous occasions – in 2004 for 25 days, in 2012 for 66 days, in 2015 for 56 days, in 2018 for 58 days, and in 2021 for 25 days. These repeated hunger strikes caused severe health impacts, as the body’s internal organs begin to fail after the first two weeks of a hunger strike.

Although Israeli authorities labeled Adnan, who held a bachelor’s degree in economic mathematics, as a “security threat”, they had never filed official charges against him, and held him in prison repeatedly without any charges.

While Israel claimed Adnan “refused to undergo medical tests and receive treatment”, his lawyer Jamil Al-Khatib accused Israel of deliberate medical negligence and said that he had repeatedly requested that Israeli authorities move Adnan to a civilian hospital in Israel, but the request was denied by the Israeli Prison Authority.

Palestinian political leaders say that Adnan was targeted because of his vocal and steadfast opposition to the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land — a military occupation that is considered illegal under international law and has been condemned by multiple United Nations resolutions.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) issued a statement that “Adnan, through his six hunger strikes and martyrdom, “carried the voice of the prisoners to all parts of the world, and was able, with each hunger strike, to gain his freedom. This time, the Israeli occupation made the decision to assassinate him.”

With the death of Khader Adnan, the number of Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli custody since 1967 has risen to 236, of whom 75 were the result of the crime of deliberate medical negligence.

This is in addition to hundreds who died months or years after they were released, due to health conditions and illness they developed in prison without receiving professional medical treatment.

The Palestinians declared a general strike across the occupied territory and called for massive processions to condemn Adnan’s death, the ongoing Israeli crimes and violations.

As for the number of prisoners who died in captivity, but whose bodies are being held by Israeli authorities, there are now 13: Anis Doula, who died in Ashkelon prison in 1980, Aziz Owaisat since 2018, Fares Baroud, Nassar Taqatqa, Bassam Al-Sayeh, who died in 2019, Saadi Al-Gharabli, and Kamal Abu Wa’ar, who died in 2020, Sami Al-Amour, who died in 2021, Daoud Al-Zubaidi, Nasser Abu Hamid and Mohammad Maher Turkman, who died in 2022 , the detainee Wadih Abu Ramoz, who died in an Israeli occupation hospital on January 28, 2023, and Khader Adnan, who succumbed in his cell in the Ramla prison clinic on May 2, 2023.

Khader Adnan, was a married father of nine children, was from Arraba town, southwest of Jenin in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. Source: IMEMC