Khader Adnan

On 11th December 2017 the Israeli army detained Khader Adnan again. He resumed an open ended hunger strike on 2nd September 2018.

On 16 February, the 61st day of Adnan's hunger strike, thousands of demonstrators protested throughout the Palestinian territories. About 1,000 mostly young Palestinians protested outside of Ofer Prison before being dispersed and in Hebron, hundreds of supporters held a sit-in holding posters reading "No to administrative arbitrary detention." That same day, Palestinians observed a 10-hour hunger strike in solidarity.

He was detained again on July 8, 2014 and given a 6-month detention order. His detention was extended in January and May 2015, and on May 5, 2015 he began a second hunger strike. The government of Israel is determined to force feed him, and has drafted a law for that purpose, but the Israeli Medical Association has issued instructions to doctors to not cooperate with any force feeding.

In spite of the agreement to end his first hunger strike (see above), Adnan was arrested again on July 8, 2014, at the beginning of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, and has been held in detention ever since, beginning his second hunger strike on May 5, 2015. The government of Israel is seemingly determined to break Adnan's hunger strike using force feeding techniques similar to those used by the USA in its Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan was quoted as saying "Security prisoners are interested in turning hunger strikes into a new kind of suicide attack that would threaten the State of Israel. We cannot allow anyone to threaten us and we will not allow prisoners to die in our prisons." However, the Israeli Medical Society and various human rights groups are deploring this planned course of action by Israel, with the Medical Society issuing orders to Israeli doctors to not participate in any planned forced feedings except under certain limited circumstances not applicable to Adnan at this point in time.

He was transferred to a hospital on December 30 but refused treatment from Israeli doctors. After meeting Adnan in the hospital, the organization Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, expressed "grave concern" and about his situation, which its doctors described as "critical." About 50 days into his hunger strike his wife Randa was permitted to visit him and stated he appeared emaciated and dirty and was shackled to his hospital bed.

Randa Adnan appealed to Egyptian authorities to help release her husband stating "Hope is now in Egypt to release Adnan. There's talk about Egyptian efforts to do so and I hope it's true. Egypt had an active role in the last prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel – it is our older sister and we hope it intervenes." The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs confirmed that Egypt was intervening with Israel to release Adnan. She has also said that Adnan will not backtrack on his decision, and that, "When I married him I knew I should expect anything. I am proud of him whether he is under the ground or above it."

On 16 February, Adnan's lawyers petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel to release him, citing that Adnan is in "immediate danger of death." Lawyer Mahmoud Kassandra stated "This is the last chance. The medical report says he could die at any minute. We hope this will succeed but I am not optimistic." Following a visit to Adnan by Rebecca Ziv from Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, she said of his situation:

He has "officially" been under administrative detention since 10 January 2012, a term that was set to last until 8 May at which point his detention could be renewed if the Israeli authorities deem it necessary. As of 31 December 2011, there were 307 Palestinians in administrative detention, including 21 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the parliament of the Palestinian Authority. Under the administrative detention procedure, the Israeli military can hold detainees for renewable six-month periods without charge if it deems them to be security threats. The decision to detain an individual is based on evidence presented to military judges, but not the defendant or his lawyers, and is subject to judicial review.

An Israeli military court judge rejected his first appeal against detention in a session convened at a hospital in Safed where he was being held on 13 February 2012.

He was arrested on 17 December 2011 after midnight. The following day, to protest the conditions of his arrest, Israel's policy of administrative detention and its treatment of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, particularly prisoners, Adnan went on a hunger strike. On 21 Feb 2012 a deal was announced between Adnan and the Israeli authorities whereby they confirmed he would be released on April 17, 2012 and he would immediately end his hunger strike, the longest in Palestinian history.

Adnan owns a bakery and a produce store in his home town of Arraba, near Jenin in the West Bank. He has an undergraduate degree in mathematics, and is pursuing a master's degree in economics. He is married to Randa Adnan, with whom he had two daughters, Maali and Bissan, prior to his 2011 detention, and Randa gave birth to their third child, Abdel Rahman, and in roughly late 2013, gave birth to triplets.

At the time of his most recent arrest, Adnan was no longer an active spokesman for the PIJ. He was working as a baker while studying for a master's degree in economics at the Bir Zeit University. He owns the bakery in nearby Qabatya and a produce store in his hometown of Arraba, near Jenin in the West Bank. A father to two daughters, Maali and Bissan, Randa was pregnant with their third child, when he was arrested by the Israeli Army on 17 December 2011 from their home in Arraba in the middle of the night. The next day he began a hunger strike that ended 66 days later on 21 February 2012.

It is not known if Adnan was directly involved in attacks on Israelis; he has never been charged as such by Israel. His wife Randa denied Adnan had any leadership role in the PIJ, or any role in militant activities, and said he was a member of a Palestinian reconciliation committee. She told YNET in 2011 that, "It's true that he was the Islamic Jihad's spokesman during the intifada, but over the past four years he had nothing to do with it … He hadn't talked to anyone from the Islamic Jihad. He left that activity altogether."

He married his wife Randa Adnan in 2005; by this time he had been detained five times for his affiliation with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). His wife said before they married he told her that, "his life was not normal, that he might be around for 15 days and then be gone again for a long time. But I always dreamt of marrying someone strong, someone who struggles in defence of his country."

In August 2005, Adnan was arrested and imprisoned by Israel for 15 months. According to Addameer, he held a 12-day hunger strike to protest his isolation in Kfar Yona in 2005. A YouTube video of a rally in 2007 shows him praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?" He was held by Israel for another six months in administrative detention beginning in March 2008. Arrested by the PNA in 2010 for his political activity, Gideon Levy said he undertook his first hunger strike during this 12-day detention.

Adnan has been convicted in the past by Israel for being a spokesperson for the PIJ, and media reports indicate he served as a PIJ spokesman. Gulf News said he has served as a spokesman for the group since 2000, while The Guardian and Agence France Press said he was a "one-time spokesman" for the PIJ in the past. Reports from Xinhua and Reuters in 2005 said he is considered a "prominent [Islamic] Jihad leader" and a "senior Islamic Jihad official." In June 2005, after PIJ members were killed in a shootout with Israeli troops, Adnan "called on all Palestinian militant groups to resume fighting with Israel" and accused the governing entity the PNA of collaborating with Israel.

Adnan is widely reported as being a spokesman and leader in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank. His wife says he is not involved in militant activities and is a member of the Palestinian reconciliation committee. The PIJ is designated a terrorist group by a number of Western countries and Israel, and Adnan has been convicted in the past by Israel for being a spokesperson for the group. Though he has been detained several times since 1999 on the basis of alleged activities in a terrorist organization, Israel has never charged him with involvement in attacks on Israelis.

First arrested and detained by Israel in 1999, he has been detained roughly 10 times since—seven times by Israel (including his current detention), and 2 or 3 times by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The Palestinian prisoners' support group Addameer said Adnan has spent a total of six years in prison since 1999.

Adnan spent four months under Israeli administrative capture in 1999. He was arrested by the PNA eight months after being released for leading a student demonstration against Lionel Jospin in 2000. At the demonstration, students threw eggs or stones at the former French Prime Minister during his visit to Birzeit to denounce his characterization of Hezbollah's military actions against the Israeli occupation as "terrorism." His first hunger strike, 10 days long, was undertaken during his detention by the PNA. He spent a year in administrative detention following his December 2002 arrest by Israel. Rearrested six months after his release, he was placed in solitary confinement and went on hunger strike for 28 days until the Israel Prisons Service placed him with the general prison population.

Adnan's political activism dates back to his days as a student. In 1996, while studying for his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Birzeit University, he became a political advocate on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). A small Palestinian militant organization, the group has carried out suicide bombings and paramilitary operations against civilian and military targets and is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and Australia.

Khader Adnan Mohammad Musa (Arabic: خضر عدنان محمد موسى ‎; born on 24 March 1978) is a senior member of the Palestinian Islamist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and a prisoner in Israel. He has been held in prison 10 times under administrative detention, a procedure which allows Israel to detain people for periods of 6 months, each renewable, without the filing of charges or a trial. As of June 15, 2015, Israeli authorities had not laid any formal charges against him, but have repeatedly held him for reasons such as "activities that threaten regional security." A visit by an International Committee of the Red Cross delegation was cancelled after Israel insisted their visit be conducted in their presence, with Khader remaining tied to his bed. He was released on 18 April 2012 after being on hunger strike for 66 days, and rearrested under the same procedure on July 8, 2014. Khader was released in July, 2015.