Prisoners' institutions and national and Islamic forces in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate organized, this Saturday evening, a stand in the city center of Ramallah, in support of the prisoner Walid Daqqa, and the sick and hunger-striking prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons.

The participants in the vigil raised Palestinian flags and pictures of the prisoner Daqqa, and chanted patriotic slogans in support of him and all the prisoners, especially the sick and hunger-striking prisoners, rejecting the repressive Israeli occupation practices against the prisoners, and emphasizing their right to freedom.

The head of the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners Affairs, Qaddoura Fares, said that the vigil represents a message of fulfillment to the Palestinian prisoners in their concerns and aspirations, and an expression of rejection of brutality and fascism, which is manifested in its worst forms in the policies, procedures and statements of the occupation leaders who are taking revenge on all of us through the prisoner Walid Daqqa and the rest of the sick prisoners.

Fares added that the stand is also an expression of support for the steady struggle led by the administrative prisoners in the face of the racist administrative detention law, as well as an appeal to the Palestinian people that today we need unity of action and increased participation in all activities supporting the struggle of the prisoners.

And Fares indicated that the prisoner’s condition is deteriorating continuously in light of the continued policy of medical neglect against him, and because he is in a place that is not suitable for housing sick cases, noting that doctors have warned of the possibility of contamination or infection with a virus due to his weak immunity, and that his continued presence in a contaminated place “is like putting him in a mouth of death."

Sana Daqqa, the wife of prisoner Walid, expressed her and his family's appreciation for the efforts of all the participants in the vigil, noting that the prisoners are in dire need of these support vigils.

She added that the prisoner, Daqqa, suffers from a complex health condition, and that he needs to be free in order to be able to receive permanent treatment, noting that there is a lot to do for him and that he is now in a race against time, as his health condition is very sensitive and needs special medical attention.

She indicated that an appeal was submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court against the Central Court's refusal to release her captive husband, Walid Daqqa, pointing out that expectations from her are not high, but it is "a door they can only knock" in the hope of his release, stressing the necessity of continuing advocacy activities for her husband until his liberation.

The prisoner, Daqqa, was admitted to the hospital, on the 23rd of last March, after his health condition deteriorated sharply, after he was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a rare cancer of the bone marrow, on the 18th of December 2022, which developed from leukemia that was diagnosed. Nearly ten years ago, he was left without serious treatment.

On April 27, the occupation prison administration allowed the prisoner’s wife, Daqqa, and his daughter, Milad, to visit him in Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, after he underwent an operation to remove part of his right lung, on April 12. And that after procrastination that lasted more than two weeks.

The prisoner Daqqa is one of the most prominent prisoners in the occupation prisons, and he contributed to many paths in the detention life of the prisoners, and during his long career in detention he produced many books, studies and articles and contributed cognitively to understanding the prison experience and its resistance, and among the most prominent publications of the prisoner Daqqa: “Parallel Time”, “Diaries of the Resistance in the Jenin Camp,” “The Melting of Consciousness,” “The Tale of the Secret of Oil,” and, more recently, “The Tale of the Secret of the Sword.”