Palestinian man dies of cancer after 38 years in Israeli prisons

A Palestinian who spent 38 years in Israeli prisons for his links to a group that killed an Israeli soldier died Sunday from cancer, according to media reports.

Walid Daqqah, 62, died at the Shamir medical center near Tel Aviv. He was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow cancer in December 2022 and had previoulsy had leukemia.

Daqqah, an Israeli citizen, was arrested in March 1986 and jailed for belonging to an armed cell of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine that was blamed for the kidnapping and killing of an Israeli soldier in 1984.

His life sentence was reduced to 37 years, but two additional years were added in 2018 after he tried to smuggle mobile phones into prison. He was due to be released in March 2025.

Requests for medical parole were rejected, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an association of Palestinians who have been held in Israeli prisons.

Amnesty International on Saturday repeated its call for his release. “Since 7 October 2023, Walid Daqqah has been tortured, humiliated, denied family visits and has faced further medical neglect,” the group said.

The most famous Palestinian detainee in Israel remains Marwan Barghouti, a former Fatah leader sentenced for his role in anti-Israeli attacks in the early 2000s, who has spent 20 years behind bars.

His supporters had hoped he would be released as part of a prisoner exchange agreed in November 2023 between Israel and Hamas, weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks, when 80 Israeli hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners were freed.

No further accords have been reached despite indirect negotiations brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.