Imprisoned Palestinian novelist and activist Walid Daqqa, who was suffering from cancer, has died in Israel’s Shamir Health-related Centre, in accordance to the Palestinian Fee of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

Daqqa was from Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a predominantly Palestinian town in Israel, and had served for 38 yrs in Israeli prisons, the fee added, just before stating that he had died as a final result of a “slow killing” policy carried out towards ill prisoners by the Israeli jail administration.

Protesters have gathered in Ramallah in memory of 1 of the most notable Palestinian prisoners, who was due to be unveiled up coming 12 months.

The Palestinian state information company Wafa described Daqqa as a “freedom fighter”, while Hamas stated that it was renewing its “covenant with the prisoners right until they get freedom”, following the information of his loss of life.

In a statement, Hamas noted how Daqqa’s loss of life “took place in the profession prisons”.

Israel’s significantly-ideal Minister of Countrywide Protection Itamar Ben-Gvir – who is dependable for the Israel Jail Assistance – claimed that Israel was “not crying” over the death of Daqaa, who he referred to as a “terrorist”.

In a social media write-up, he reported that Daqqa’s daily life had finished by natural means and that it was not a portion of the “death penalty for terrorists” as it was “supposed to” be.

לא בוכה הלילה על מותו של אסיר העולם – המחבל ווליד דקה ימ”ש. לצערי, ווליד דקה סיים את חייו במוות טבעי, ולא כמו תפיסתי לפיה דקה היה אמור לסיים את חייו במסגרת עונש מוות למחבלים.

— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) April 7, 2024

Inadequate procedure of prisoners

Daqqa is a single of the most distinguished and longtime Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody. He was arrested by Israel in 1986 for killing an Israeli soldier and has remained in prison given that then. When in jail, he wrote a number of books, including a children’s tale.

In 1999, he also bought married even though guiding bars. Alongside with his wife, Sana Salameh, he welcomed a daughter – Milad – in 2020, conceived immediately after his sperm was smuggled out of jail.

“The Israeli officers inside the prison informed him they would not make it possible for him to have a child, but he gained by getting Milad,” his wife explained to Al Jazeera.

A yr later on Daqqa was identified with myelofibrosis – a scarce type of bone marrow most cancers that disrupts the body’s standard output of blood cells. Rights teams began pressuring Israel to release him on professional medical grounds.

Very last year, Addameer, a rights group that supports Palestinian prisoners, mentioned that Daqqa was in “dire want of urgent health care attention”, accused Israeli authorities of denying him the remedy he was approved, and named for his “immediate release”.

But Israel refused to free him from prison early, setting his launch date for 2025.

Israeli jail authorities regularly delay checkups and urgent surgeries for Palestinian prisoners for yrs, according to prisoner teams.

Specialised medical doctors are not regularly offered, besides for dentists, and “over-the-counter painkillers are administered as a remedy for virtually all overall health problems”, rights teams reported in a joint report to the United Nations.

At least 10 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons because the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7, according to Wafa. But a Haaretz investigation claimed that the selection was essentially at minimum 27.

Prior to that, in 2020, 4 Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli custody and in November 2021, Palestinian prisoner Sami Umour, 39, died immediately after a months-extended delay of an urgently necessary procedure for really serious coronary heart problems from which he experienced.

The delay in deciding the circumstance of Daqqa and other sick prisoners was explained by Qadura Fares, the director of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, the key Palestinian prisoner legal rights NGO, as a plan of “slow, systematic killing”.

On Sunday, after the information about Daqqa’s dying was announced by Israel, tributes poured in on social media in memory of him and his operate.

“He was between the most outstanding prisoner intellectuals, with many is effective to his name, notably ‘Melting the Consciousness,’ ‘Parallel Time,’ and the novel ‘The Secret of the Oil Story,’ which gained nearby and Arab awards,” Lema, a diplomat at the Palestine Mission to the European Union, explained in a submit on X.

“Daqqa leaves driving a legacy as a Palestinian hero,” she mentioned.

Walid Daqqa,🇵🇸 prisoner battling cancer,has died in an Israeli Hosp. Even with intercontinental & Palestinian phone calls for his launch because of to intense health-related neglect in jail, he remained detained until eventually his dying. Daqqa leaves driving a legacy as a 🇵🇸 hero, survived by his spouse & daughter pic.twitter.com/liBBnFBVtM

— Lema (@Lemapal) April 7, 2024