Fearing Confrontation, Israel Refuses to Release the Body of Palestinian Figure Walid Daqqa Who Died in Custody

Walid Daqqa. (Source: WAFA)

JAKARTA - Israeli officials have confirmed the country's refusal to release the body of a Palestinian figure who died in custody since being imprisoned nearly four decades ago, fearing it would trigger confrontations during his funeral.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant refused to release the body of Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa who died last month, after years of deliberate medical negligence by the Israeli prison administration.

Walid Daqqa died at Israel's Assaf Harofeh Hospital on April 7.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that Israel's Minister of National Security and right-wing figure Itamar Benn-Gvir justified Defense Minister Gallant's refusal "out of fear of an outbreak of confrontation during the funeral ceremony, amidst the ongoing Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip," quoted from WAFA May 3.

The commission and PPS described Daqqa's death as part of the Israeli prison administration's "slow killing" policy of sick prisoners.

Daqqa's health condition had worsened since March last year, three months before his previous release date after suffering from severe pneumonia and acute kidney failure, and was diagnosed with myelofibrosis cancer on December 18, 2022.

Myelofibrosis is a rare bone marrow cancer that develops from leukemia diagnosed about ten years ago and left without proper treatment.

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

On May 22, his condition worsened and he was transferred to Assaf Harofeh Hospital due to complications from the lung removal process, which caused severe shortness of breath and infection.

After being transferred to the hospital, he underwent a catheterization procedure because he was experiencing heart failure. Three days later, the prison authorities returned him to the “Ramla Prison Clinic” where his condition worsened. He was transferred again to Assaf Harofeh Hospital and then returned to Ramla prison.

Last year, Addameer, a human rights group that supports Palestinian detainees, said Daqqa was in "desperate need of urgent medical attention", accused Israeli authorities of rejecting the treatment provided to him and called for his "immediate release", quoted by Al Jazeera.

But Israel refused to release him from prison early, and set his release date at 2025.

Daqqa is one of 19 Palestinians who have spent more than 30 years in Israeli occupation prisons, as well as one of 23 Palestinians imprisoned since before the Oslo Accords.

The Palestinian novelist and activist is from Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a predominantly Palestinian town in Israel, and has served in an Israeli prison for 38 years, according to the Commission on the Affairs of Palestinian Prisoners and Former Prisoners.

Daqqa is one of the most famous Palestinian prisoners. He was arrested by Israel in 1986 on charges of killing an Israeli soldier and has remained in prison since then. In 1999, he married while behind bars.

"He was one of the prisoner's most prominent intellectuals, with several of his works, especially 'Melting the Consciousness', 'Parallel Time' and the novel 'The Secret of the Oil Story', receiving local and Arab awards," tweeted a diplomat at the Mission Palestine for the European Union in a post on X's social media.

"Daqqa left a legacy as a Palestinian hero," he said.

It is known that the number of Palestinian deaths in occupied prisons has increased to 14 people since the outbreak of the latest Hamas-Israel conflict on October 7 2023. Meanwhile, since 1967, around 251 prisoners have died in Israeli custody.