Palestinian political prisoner, Walid Daqqah, has passed away in Israeli jails after 38 years of imprisonment.

Daqqah died on Sunday at the Assaf Harofeh Hospital due to medical negligence by Israeli regime authorities, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the Prisoners’ Club announced in a statement, according to Palestinian media.

He suffered from chronic lung disease and was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in December 2022.

Prominent rights group, Amnesty International, issued a report in August 2023, calling for the immediate release of Daqqah. It said that the Israeli Prison Service had denied him access to a potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant by refusing to transfer him to a civilian hospital.  

Palestinian human rights organizations also repeatedly said that Daqqah’s health condition had deteriorated due to medical negligence.

Meanwhile, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad movements expressed their condolences on the martyrdom of Walid Daqqah.

Daqqah was a novelist and activist who was arrested in 1986 and sentenced to 37 years in jail for his involvement in the killing of an Israeli soldier.

He was set to complete his jail term in February 2023, but his sentence was extended for two years for alleged smuggling mobile phones into prison.