Terminally ill Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa dies in Israeli custody
Al Jazeera
Daqqa was arrested by Israel in 1986 for killing an Israeli soldier and has remained in prison since then.
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.
Protesters have gathered in Ramallah in memory of one of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners, who was due to be released next year.
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”.
