ISRAELI police stormed the funeral tent of Palestinian hero, writer and prisoner Walid Daqqa in the West Bank city of Baqa al-Gharbiya in Occupied Palestine on Monday evening, removing the tent, and arresting five of the mourners.
Walid Daqqa, 61, a Palestinian prisoner incarcerated since 1986, died in Israel’s Shamir Medical Centre on Sunday after a long battle with cancer.
Israeli authorities had recently extended his 36-year jail sentence by another two years, sparking an outcry among rights groups.
Daqqa, who was convicted of killing an Israeli soldier in 1984, devoted decades behind bars to raising awareness of the struggle for a Palestinian state, writing essays and a book intended for the children of prisoners, The Oil’s Secret Tale.
Israeli police broke into the funeral tent, before removing it, and rounded up five relatives of Walid Daqqa, after storming his family home.
The police attacked other citizens and fired tear gas at them.
On Sunday, the family of Daqqa announced that Israeli occupation forces refused to hand over his body, in an attempt to punish the family.
The body is still held in the Forensic Medicine Institute in Abu Kabir with no legal justification.
The family called on all humanitarian and human rights institutions and regional officials to seek the release of the body, saying: ‘We had hoped that the (prisoners’ exchange) deal would release Walid alive, and now we hope no deal will be reached without the release of his body.’
Walid Daqqa, who spent 38 years behind bars, died on Sunday in the Israeli Assaf Harofeh Hospital after years of deliberate medical negligence by the Israeli prison administration.
The brother of Walid Daqqa, Asaad Daqqa, stated that the Israeli occupation authorities are punishing the family by withholding Walid’s body.
He went on to say that Walid’s body will only be released if Itamar Ben Gvir, the extremist Israeli Minister of National Security, makes the decision.
In an attempt to punish the family, Daqqa clarified in a press conference on Monday that Walid’s body is being withheld even after his martyrdom.
He noted that Ben Gvir must now make a decision on the matter.
He declared that there is no legal basis for keeping Walid’s body in the Forensic Medicine Institute in ‘Abu Kabir’.
‘The problem did not end with the body being withheld. Instead, the occupation required the family to forbid gatherings, refuse to accept mourners, and refrain from setting up a funeral home for Walid.’
He emphasised that the family only found out about Walid’s death through the media and the hospital, not through an official notification from the occupation authorities.
Official leaders, human rights organisations, and humanitarian groups worldwide are urged to work toward Walid’s body’s release.
Imprisoned Palestinian novelist and activist Walid Daqqa, who was suffering from cancer, died in Israel’s Shamir Medical Centre on Sunday.
Daqqa was from Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a predominantly Palestinian city within the Green Line, and had served for 38 years in Israeli prisons.
He died as a result of the ‘slow killing’ policy carried out against ill prisoners by the Israeli prison administration.
He was repeatedly denied early release, due to his deteriorating health condition, by the Israeli prison authorities.
The Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoner Society confirmed the death of the cancer-stricken prisoner.
The prisoner Walid Daqqa was born in 1961 and was arrested on March 25, 1986, along with a group of his comrades, including Ibrahim Abu Mokh, Rashidi Abu Mokh, and Ibrahim Bayadsa.
Walid Daqqa emerged over the years of his long captivity as a political activist, distinguished writer, intellectual, thinker, skillful leader, and influential figure.
He is considered one of the prominent thinkers and intellectuals of the prisoner movement and one of the most prominent prisoners who excelled in their writings about the Palestinian cause.
This prisoner spent his days and nights behind bars, believing in his cause, engaged in writing, immersed in the pages of history, reading, contemplating, analysing, and classifying.
The experiences of the prisoners show that such a hero is resistant to illness, resistant to breaking, resistant to dissolution in oppression, depression, and the psychological illness that the occupation desires.
Throughout his long journey in detention, he produced numerous books, studies, and articles, contributing to the understanding of the experience of imprisonment and its resistance.
Among his notable works are ‘Parallel Time’, ‘Diaries of Resistance in Jenin Camp’, ‘Melting Consciousness’, and ‘The Secret of Oil’.
Daqqa was afflicted with cancer that spread throughout his body and exhausted him.
The released prisoner Abdul Nasser Farwana said: ‘Despite the long years of imprisonment and the malignant disease that has sapped his body, his mind remained free, remaining attached to the causes of his people and his fellow prisoners.
‘He continues to write the secret story of thousands of Palestinian prisoners who have suffered from illness, medical negligence, deliberate medical crimes, and slow death.’
Daqqa suffered from a rare cancer in the bone marrow. He underwent surgery on April 12, 2023, to remove part of his right lung.
He experienced inflammation and infection in his left lung, in addition to feeling weak and having difficulty speaking properly.
Despite repeated requests for the release of the sick prisoner, the occupation authority continuously refused, insisting on keeping the hero captive until he died, bearing witness to the brutality of the occupation and its crimes.
- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped at dawn on Tuesday a number of Palestinian citizens during raids in the West Bank, amid clashes in some areas.
The IOF kidnapped a young man from his home in the east of Nablus City, while another young man suffered a bullet injury during clashes between local youths and Israeli forces in the same area.
Earlier, a large number of Israeli troops stormed Balata refugee camp and the eastern area of Nablus City, laid tight siege to the camp and bulldozed road barriers at its main entrance.
The IOF also bulldozed roads and infrastructure in the camp’s streets, raided homes and interrogated local residents.
One Israeli soldier was injured when resistance fighters opened fire and detonated explosive devices at Israeli forces in Nablus.
In Qalqilya, the IOF raided several homes and facilities in Jayyous town, confiscated security camera recordings and set up multiple checkpoints in and around it.
The IOF also closed some roads with mounds of dirt and rocks around the town and intercepted Palestinian vehicles at makeshift checkpoints at the pretext of looking for the Palestinian who carried out a shooting attack on an Israeli bus on Sunday.
In Tulkarem, Israeli forces stormed the city, patrolled its streets and raided homes around Thabet Thabet Hospital, while resistance fighters showered them with a hail of bullets in different areas.
At least seven citizens, including a father and his two sons, were kidnapped by the IOF from different areas of Tulkarem.
The IOF also wreaked havoc on vegetable stands in the Shuweika suburb of Tulkarem.
In Ramallah, Israeli soldiers kidnapped one citizen after ransacking his home in al-Am’ari refugee camp.
IOF soldiers opened fire, with no reason, at vehicles and a commercial store during its campaign in the camp.
In Jericho, Israeli soldiers kidnapped three young men, residents of Aqabat Jabr refugee camp, during their presence on Road 90 in the east of the city.
One of the soldiers opened fire at those young men and injured one of them.
The IOF also kidnapped one citizen form his home in al-Arroub refugee camp in al-Khalil and another one after assaulting him during a violent raid on his home in al-Masara village in Bethlehem.
- More decomposed bodies have been found inside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, amid operations to recover bodies of the victims of one of the largest massacres committed by Israel against the Palestinians, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says.
The founder and chairman of the group, Ramy Abdu, said in a series of social media posts that ‘operations to discover bodies executed by the Israeli army at al-Shifa Hospital continue’.
He published a ‘shocking’ video that showed rescue teams, civil defence, and forensic evidence finding more decomposed bodies.
‘It seems we are witnessing one of the largest massacres committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in history.’
Abdu said the video confirmed the Geneva-based rights group’s report on field execution operations carried out by the Israeli forces during their recent attack on al-Shifa.
‘Horror: Doctors, nurses, displaced persons, administrators at the hospital, children, women. This is what is revealed after the Israeli army’s withdrawal from al-Shifa Hospital. Dozens of bodies were executed in the field,’ he said. According to his remarks, the Israeli army placed the bodies inside pits it had dug.
On March 18, Israeli forces started a new wave of attacks on Gaza’s main hospital, al-Shifa, and imposed a two-week siege on it.
On April 1, the Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces withdrew tanks and vehicles from al-Shifa, adding that dozens of bodies, some of them decomposed, had been found at the complex after the Israeli pullout, which also left behind a vast swath of destruction.
