Mahmoud Darwish, the renowned Palestinian poet, has died in the US after heart surgery.
Darwish, 67, had received open heart surgery at the Memorial Hermann medical centre in Texas, but died on Saturday.
Fellow poet Siham Daoud said Darwish had departed for the US 10 days ago and had asked not to be resuscitated if the surgery did not succeed.
Darwish had undergone two earlier operations for heart conditions.
He is best known for his poetry describing the Palestinian struggle for independence, the experience of exile and factional infighting.
He was a vocal critic of Israeli policy and the occupation of Palestinian lands.
He was born in the village of Barweh in Galilee, a village that was razed during the establishment of Israel in 1948.
He was put under house arrest and was imprisoned for his political activities. He worked as editor of Ittihad newspaper before leaving to study in the USSR in 1971.
As a journalist, he worked for al-Ahram newspaper in Cairo and was later director of the Palestinian Research Centre.
In 2001, he won the Lannan prize for cultural freedom.
Leaves of Olives was published in 1964 when Darwish was 22-years old. Since then more than 20 volumes of his works of poetry have been published.
The Palestinian presidency hopes to transport his body to the Jordanian capital, Amman, and then on to the Palestinian territories.
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