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Nablus -

 To the sound of many chants and expressions of anger, demonstrators in Nablus sounded the alarm, warning of the condition of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation prisons, after the martyrdom of prisoner Walid Daqqa yesterday, Sunday.

The demonstrators' throats rang out with chants such as, "Where is the world coming to see... the killing of prisoners in the open?"

The Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club announced the martyrdom of prisoner Walid Nimr Daqqa (62 years old) from Baqa al-Gharbiyya in the territories occupied in 1948. He was suffering from cancer and had been detained for 38 years in Israeli occupation prisons, after a series of medical crimes carried out against him with the aim of killers.

To the Martyrs' Roundabout in the center of Nablus, the largest city in the northern West Bank, dozens of families of prisoners, citizens, institutions and national factions attended to protest the martyrdom of prisoner Daqqa in an event organized by the Supreme National Committee for Prisoner Support, while activities were launched in other cities in the West Bank, the most prominent of which was in the city of Ramallah.

A citizen carries a picture of the captured martyr Walid Daqqa at a protest event in Nablus (Al Jazeera)

Angry messages

Through these anger marches, the protesters sent their angry messages to the trinity of the Palestinian arena: the authority, the resistance, and the people, denouncing the occupation’s crimes of killing prisoners, and calling on everyone to take their role and move to stop it, especially the resistance, which is more reliable, in their opinion, in light of the occupation’s intransigence against the prisoners. They also did not drop the "silent world" from their agenda, so they demanded that it put an end to the occupation and not remain a spectator.

Similar to their call to hold the occupation accountable and to mobilize the people to defend the prisoners, the demonstrators supported the prisoner’s only child, “Milad,” by chanting, raising her picture with her martyr father, and writing on huge banners their expressions of support for Walid, “the intellectual and writer.”

In his comment to Al-Jazeera Net, Asaad Daqqa was unable to speak due to the severity of the situation he and his family are experiencing in grief for his brother, except by accusing the occupation of being a “criminal,” and that “the Israeli institution is a system of crime against all prisoners, and it is not a state that carries a law and adheres to its procedures,” and he added. He says, "This is a gang headed by Itamar Ben Gvir (the extremist Israeli Minister of National Security)."

Daqqa pointed out that this requires everyone (the state, the Palestinian institution, and the resistance) to confront the occupation’s criminality against the prisoners, explaining that they feel betrayed. He said, asking, “I don’t know, have we all done enough to protect our people?”

He continued, "We accepted the news and were hoping that Walid would be released in a deal after 38 years of suffering in prison, 5 years of suffering in hospitals, and a continuous state of deteriorating health due to medical negligence. If he had been outside captivity, he would have been treated, and today we see him among us."

According to the martyr’s brother, the Israeli occupation refused to hand over his body, and also refused to allow his family to establish a funeral home for the martyr in his hometown.

Resistance is hope

For his part, Muzaffar Dhouqan, head of the Supreme Committee for Supporting Prisoners in Nablus, which organized the event, said that the occupation deliberately, since prisoner Daqqa contracted cancer, targeted him medically, prevented him from receiving health care, and held human rights institutions, especially international ones and those concerned with prisoners, responsible, and stressed that they are “partners in the crime.” committed by the occupation against prisoners, especially sick ones.”

He stated that since October 7 until now, 15 prisoners have been martyred in the occupation prisons without international institutions doing anything. Therefore, they must stand up to their responsibility by pressuring the occupation to stop its crimes against the prisoners. “Otherwise, what is the point of having these institutions?” He added questioningly.

Zoqan pointed out that the prisoner Daqqa is one of 24 old prisoners (pre-Oslo prisoners), who were excluded from deals and exchanges, due to the occupation’s intransigence and its various pretexts that aimed to bargain for the Palestinians’ national rights and blackmail them politically, especially during its negotiation processes with the Palestinian Authority.

Zoqan stated that the number of veteran prisoners and what he described as “generals of patience” exceeds 400 prisoners who spent 25 years or more in the occupation prisons, waiting for the dawn of their freedom only at the hands of the resistance. He added, “This is the duty of the prisoners to resist unconditionally, because the occupation only understands the language of force.” ".

As for Zaher Al-Shashtari, a member of the political leadership of the Popular Front, he confirmed that “the occupation’s Nazism and its continued medical neglect of the prisoners is the reason for the martyrdom of the prisoner Daqqa and dozens of others,” pinning his hope on what the resistance will accomplish in terms of an exchange deal to release the prisoners, especially the old ones.

Al-Shashtari told Al-Jazeera Net that the prisoners themselves rely only on the resistance for their liberation, especially after the Al-Aqsa flood.

The popular movement on the ground has the most influence on the issue of Palestinian prisoners, according to Ghassan Douglas, Governor of Nablus (Al Jazeera)

Popular movement

Ghassan Douglas, Governor of Nablus, considered that Daqqa’s martyrdom “is evidence that the occupation government does not have any morals, nor does the world remain silent about its crimes. On the other hand, it is a message calling for greater Palestinian popular action.”

Despite his emphasis on the importance of the role that the resistance and the Palestinian political leadership can play to pressure and release prisoners, Douglas stressed the necessity of popular action on the ground as it is the most influential.

Like the street, social networking sites were abuzz with the news of the martyrdom of the prisoner Daqqa, and many people shared it, amidst reviewing the path of his struggle and resistance to the Israeli occupation, and his and others’ kidnapping of the Israeli soldier “Moshe Tammam” in 1984, and among them were those who highlighted his prominent role as a prisoner Palestinian intellectual, thinker, and novelist, while his letters came to his daughter. A birth across many platforms, inflaming the feelings of those who view it.

Source: Al Jazeera