The actions are almost always political, and governments sometimes resort to force-feeding, a practice denounced as inhumane. But deaths like that of a Palestinian prisoner this week are uncommon.
The authorities detained a woman they said had delivered the bomb, hidden in a statuette, that killed the blogger, and called it the work of antigovernment activists and Ukraine.
“Even maniacs and serial killers serving life sentences have the right to receive a visit, but I don’t,” the Russian opposition leader wrote on Twitter.