Islamic Jihad warns Israel against letting hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner die

Israel will pay the price if Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan dies while in detention, an Islamic Jihad official warned yesterday.

“Israel is fully responsible for the life of the captive Khader Adnan,” the movement’s national relations head, Khaled Al-Batsh, said in a statement.

Al-Batsh urged all parties making efforts to save Adnan’s life “to continue pressuring the Israeli occupation to end his [Adnan’s] suffering before it is too late.”

“The Israeli attempts to circumvent and mislead by presenting fake indictments, through which it seeks to issue an unfair Israeli judicial ruling, constitute an open conspiracy aimed at distancing Adnan from his people, his family, and his relatives,” Al-Batsh said, stressing that such attempts would “fail with Adnan’s steadfastness and will”

Adnan has been on a hunger strike for 74 days in protest against his arbitrary detention by Israel. His lawyer said that his strike was “threating his life.”

The 44-year-old, from the town of Arraba, in the northern West Bank district of Jenin, was detained on 5 February and immediately went on hunger strike in protest against his illegal detention.

In an interview last week, his wife said: “He passes out but not for long periods, he isn’t able to keep his balance, his health is in a very bad state and he’s struggling to breathe. The doctor has said that – God forbid – he may suffer a stroke at any time.”

Adnan has been arrested 12 times by the Israeli occupation authorities over the past 20 years for his political and anti-occupation activities and has spent a total of eight years behind bars.

He has been on hunger strike four times

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