Bethlehem/PNN/

Sixty-two ill freedom fighter Walid Daqqa, who completed 39 years behind bars for his resistance to the Israeli occupation, died in the Israeli Assaf Harofeh Hospital after years of deliberate medical negligence by the Israeli prison administration, said the Detainees and Ex-Detainees' Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

In a statement, the Commission and PPS described the death of Daqqa as part of the "slow killing" policy followed by the Israeli prison administration against sick prisoners.

The health condition of Daqqa has deteriorated since March last year; three months before his previous release date after suffering from severe pneumonia and acute kidney failure, in addition to being diagnosed with myelofibrosis cancer on December 18, 2022.

Myelofibrosis is a rare cancer of the bone marrow, which developed from leukemia that was diagnosed about ten years ago and left without proper treatment.

In April last year, Daqqa underwent surgery in which part of his right lung was removed, then he was transferred to the Ramla Prison Clinic.

On May 22, he suffered further deterioration and was transferred to Assaf Harofeh Hospital due to complications of the lung removal process, which caused very severe respiratory suffocation and infection.

After his transfer to the hospital, he underwent a catheterization procedure due to noticeable heart failure. Three days later, the prison authority returned him to the “Ramla Prison Clinic”, which caused him further deterioration. He was transferred again to Assaf Harofeh Hospital and then returned to Ramla prison.

During Daqqa’s long detention, he produced many books, studies, and articles, and contributed cognitively to understanding the prison experience and its resistance.

He was subjected to several abusive policies against the backdrop of his knowledge productions in particular. The occupation's prison administration sought to seize his writings and private books. He also faced solitary confinement and arbitrary transfer.

Daqqa was arrested on March 25, 1986, along with a group of his companions, namely Ibrahim Abu Mukh, Rushdi Abu Mukh, and Ibrahim Bayadsa.

The occupation authorities issued a life sentence against him, which was later set at 37 years. In 2018, the occupation added two years to his sentence after he was charged with attempting to bring cellular phones into the prison to become 39 years.

Daqqa is one of 19 Palestinians who have spent more than 30 years in Israeli occupation prisons and one of 23 Palestinians who have been incarcerated since before the Oslo Accords.

In 1999, he married his wife, Sanaa Salama, and in February 2020, he and his wife had their daughter, Milad, via smuggled sperm.

The death toll of Palestinians in the occupation prisons has risen to 14 since the start of the aggression against the Palestinian people on October 7 last year. Since 1967, 251 prisoners died in Israeli custody.