Ailing Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa dies in Israeli custody

JERUSALEM:  Imprisoned Palestinian novelist and activist Walid Daqqa, who was suffering from cancer, has died in Israel’s Shamir Medical Center, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

Daqqa was from Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a predominantly Palestinian city in Israel, and had served for 38 years in Israeli prisons, the commission added, before saying that he had died as a result of a “slow killing” policy carried out against ill prisoners by the Israeli prison administration.

Amnesty International said Israel must release the body of Palestinian Walid Daqqa, who died a day earlier in Israeli custody after a long battle with cancer.

“It is heart-wrenching that Walid Daqqah has died in Israeli custody despite the many calls for his urgent release on humanitarian grounds following his 2022 diagnosis with bone marrow cancer and the fact that he had already completed his original sentence,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, senior director at Amnesty International.

“Israeli authorities must now return Walid Daqqah’s body to his family without delay so that they could give him a peaceful and dignified burial and allow them to mourn his death without intimidation,” Guevara-Rosas added.

An Israeli court sentenced Daqqa to life imprisonment in 1987 after convicting him of leading a group that abducted and killed Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam, an accusation Daqqa denied, Amnesty said. His conviction was based on British emergency regulations, which require a lower standard of proof than Israeli criminal law, the rights group said.

The 62-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel is one of the most prominent and longtime Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody. He is survived by his wife, Sanaa Salameh, and 4-year-old daughter Milad, who was conceived using Daqqa’s smuggled sperm after Israeli authorities denied him conjugal visits, Salameh has said.

Daqqa was due to be released last year after completing a 37-year sentence but a court ruling extended his jail term by two more years over accusations he provided mobile phones to other prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoners Society said.

It said Daqqa was the 14th Palestinian political prisoner to die in Israeli custody over the past six months as a result of Israeli practices that include torture and medical neglect.

Rights groups began pressuring Israel to release him on medical grounds but Israel refused to free him from prison early, setting his release date for 2025. Israeli prison authorities regularly delay checkups and urgent surgeries for Palestinian prisoners for years.

The Palestinian state news agency Wafa described Daqqa as a “freedom fighter”, while  Hamas said that it was renewing its “covenant with the prisoners until they gain freedom”, following the news of his death. In a statement, Hamas noted how Daqqa’s death “took place in the occupation prisons”.