Leila Shahid, a prominent Palestinian diplomat and former representative of Palestine in Paris and Brussels, died on Wednesday at the age of 76, according to her sister’s confirmation to the French news agency. Meanwhile, Le Monde newspaper reported that the former Palestinian Authority delegate was found dead in her home in southern France.
Published on: 02/18/2026 - 16:02 Last updated: 02/19/2026 - 08:17
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Laila Shahid's sister confirmed to Agence France-Presse on Wednesday that the former Palestinian diplomat in Paris and Brussels had died at the age of 76.
Her sister replied, "Yes, she died today," without providing additional details, while the French newspaper Le Monde revealed that Shahid, who had been suffering from the disease for years, was found dead in her home in the Lake region in southern France.
An informed source told Agence France-Presse that the body of a martyr was found on Wednesday afternoon. He stressed that the investigation is underway to “determine the causes of death,” and criminal motives are being ruled out at this stage, and the investigation is leaning toward the suicide hypothesis, according to the source.
Shahid was the Palestinian Authority’s delegate to France between 1994 and 2005, before holding the same position with the European Union in Brussels in the following decade.
The current Palestinian ambassador to the French capital, Hala Abu Hasira, mourned her death. She wrote on X: “Laila Shahid, the symbolic ambassador of Palestine, has left us,” considering her departure “a tremendous loss for Palestine and for the world that believes in justice.”
In turn, Palestinian Vice President Hussein Sheikh Shahid mourned Via X, considering that she was “the prominent voice of Palestine in all the forums in which she worked.”
Born in 1949 in Lebanon, Shahid was the first woman to represent the Palestine Liberation Organization abroad. She began her career in Ireland in 1989, and from the following year took over the affairs of the mission in the Netherlands.
She completed her high school studies in the Lebanese capital, and obtained a degree in anthropology from the American University of Beirut.
France 24/AFP
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