Prisoner Al-Zubaidi requests donating his bone marrow to Walid Daqqa

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The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs confirmed through its lawyer, Karim Ajwa, on Tuesday, that Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Al-Zubaidi, one of the heroes of the Gilboa prison operation, submitted an urgent request to the occupation prison administration to donate his bone marrow to cancer-stricken prisoner Walid Daqqa.

The commission stated that Daqqa was recently transferred to the Israeli Barzlai Hospital for several days, due to a relapse in his health. He was first diagnosed with Leukemia, but then re-diagnosed. 

According to initial reports, the prisoner was suffering from another type of cancer and did not need chemotherapy. He needed medicine from time to time, two units of blood, and to undergo a bone marrow transplant. 

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It is noteworthy that prisoner Zakaria Al-Zubaidi, 45, from the Jenin refugee camp, was arrested by the occupation forces on the 27th of December 2019. He is one of the six prisoners who managed to liberate themselves from the Gilboa prison, in September 2021. 

Walid Daqqa, 60, is from Baqa al-Gharbia, from the '48 occupied territories. He has been detained since 1986 and was sentenced to life, and his sentence was later decreased to 37 years. The occupation then added two years to the sentence. 

The Waad Association for Prisoners revealed, on Thursday, that the Israeli occupation refused to provide treatment for cancer-stricken prisoner Walid Daqqa, two months after he was diagnosed. 

The association pointed out that the prisoner's family is in the process of filing a court appeal to allow him to receive the necessary treatment to face his deadly illness.

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Palestinians have always been exposed to a policy of neglect inside Israeli occupation prisons. As a result of the neglect and abuse, some freed prisoners with forsaken medical cases are reported dead shortly after their release, and others die in prison.

The methods to weaken both the will and the body are a tragic duality practiced amidst an Israeli political and judicial system that legitimizes torture and psychological pressure against Palestinian and Arab prisoners.

The reported health status of prisoners proved that the Israeli occupation, specifically the Israeli Prison System (IPS), flagrantly violate many international treaties and covenants, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention.