(CNN) Palestinian detainee Khader Adnan, a former Islamic Jihad spokesman who has become a symbol of Palestinian resistance to Israeli detention policies, died Tuesday after 87 days on a hunger strike, authorities said.
Adnan, 45, has been on a hunger strike since his arrest on February 5 and has refused to undergo a medical examination during his detention, the Israel Prison Service said in a statement announcing his death.
He was found dead in his cell early Tuesday after his nearly three-month hunger strike, the prison service added.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society also announced Adnan’s death, saying “the Israeli occupation murdered Sheikh Khader Adnan.”
Islamic Jihad announced his posthumous promotion to commander, saying: “Khader Adnan has risen as a martyr in a crime for which the Zionist occupation bears full and direct responsibility.”
The Iran-backed Palestinian militant group is responsible for killing scores in Israel through suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
He was arrested in February on suspicion of membership of a terrorist organization, support for terrorism and incitement, Israeli authorities said. At the time of his death he had not been brought to justice.
Following news of his death, Palestinian political parties on Tuesday announced a general strike in the West Bank to mourn Adnan, with courts, schools, universities and shops shutting down.
Palestinian prisoners in Ofer prison, an Israeli military prison in the West Bank, began a general hunger strike on Tuesday to protest his death, the Palestinian Prisoners Society said.
Relatives of Khader Adnan mourn after his death was announced on May 2 at the family home near Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Adnan was from Jenin in the occupied West Bank. Jenin’s video on Tuesday showed one of his sons demonstrating the death of his father during a protest.
There were also reports of three rocket launches from Gaza into Israeli territory, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said landed in open terrain. No interceptors were launched, according to the IDF, but sirens sounded in the area of Sa’ad, a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel of carrying out a “premeditated assassination… by refusing his request for release, medically neglecting him and keeping him in his cell despite his serious health condition.”
Adnan first attracted international attention for a 66-day hunger strike that ended in February 2012, in what was then the longest known hunger strike by a Palestinian prisoner in Israeli prisons.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, he has been arrested at least 11 times since 2004 and has been on hunger strike five times. In 2015, he went on a hunger strike for 55 days before the Israeli authorities released him.
Adnan spent a total of eight years in Israeli prisons, mostly in administrative detention, a controversial Israeli military procedure that allows authorities to hold detainees indefinitely for security reasons. The procedure also allows for detention on the basis of classified evidence and there is no obligation to charge those detained or to have them stand trial.
His hunger strikes from prison became a rallying cry for Palestinians, who staged several rallies in support in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel has 4,900 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, of whom 1,000 are being held in administrative detention without charge – the highest number since 2003, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify that Khader Adnan was promoted to Commander posthumously.