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Khader Adnan, an activist affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group, died in an Israeli prison on Tuesday after nearly three months on hunger strike.
Adnan, who was being held pending trial, according to Israeli authorities, had been in and out of prison for more than two decades and had used hunger strikes to protest against his arrests.
Here is what you need to know about the father of nine’s rise to prominence.
Adnan was born on March 24, 1978, in the town of Arrabeh near the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
He was a baker by trade and graduated from Birzeit University with an undergraduate degree in mathematics. He owned a bakery in the city of Qabatya, to the south of Jenin.
Adnan became a political advocate for the PIJ during his student days and was first arrested by Israel and held for four months in 1999.
Eight months later, he was arrested by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for leading a student demonstration in 1999 at Bir Zeit University against the visiting French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Students had thrown stones at Jospin and his car.
Adnan would later become a spokesperson for the PIJ in the West Bank.
The PIJ was founded in 1981 by Palestinian students in Egypt with the aim of establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and other occupied areas.
SOURCE:ALJAZEERA
