Israel refuses to release terminally ill Palestinian prisoner despite ‘immediate risk to his life’

Israel’s parole committee, chaired by retired judge Zvi Segal, yesterday rejected the request for the early release of terminally ill Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa, despite warnings that he is at risk of death.

Contrary to the opinion of a medical expert from the Israel Prison Service (IPS), who warned that Daqqa’s life was in “concrete danger” as a cancer patient, Israel’s parole committee concluded that the 61-year-old’s health was not a sufficient condition for his early release.

The IPS confirmed after diagnosing him, that “his days are numbered and there is an immediate risk to his life.”

Like other Palestinian prisoners, Daqqa, who was first diagnosed with leukaemia in 2015, has suffered from medical negligence during his 37 years in prison, which has worsened his health. He was moved from the clinic of Ramla Prison earlier this year to Shamir Medical Centre due to the deterioration of his health.

In protest of the deprivation of his right to communicate with his family, Daqqa has been returning his medicine to the administration of the clinic in Ramla Prison.

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Daqqa was arrested in 1986 and sentenced to 37 years in prison, which he completed in March 2023, however, Israeli authorities extended his sentence by two years in 2017 over charges of smuggling mobile phones into prison.

According to Palestinian NGO Addameer, Daqqa is a Palestinian writer, activist and political prisoner from Baqa Al-Gharbiya, a Palestinian town in Israel, who was diagnosed with a rare form of bone marrow cancer in 2022.

He 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 1991.

Oslo Accords, the 25th Anniversary – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]