Esther Pollard walks past a poster of her husband, Jonathan Pollard, before speaking to reporters outside of her Jerusalem home on July 29, 2018. Photo: Flash90.

i24 News – Esther Pollard, the wife of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, died at the age of 68 in Israel on Monday morning as a result of septic shock.

Pollard, who was battling breast cancer for a number of years, also tested positive for Covid at the Jerusalem-based Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.

Her funeral is scheduled for Monday at Jerusalem’s Har HaMenuchot Cemetery.

Esther Pollard’s husband, Jonathan Pollard, previously worked as an intelligence analyst for the United States Navy and received a life sentence in the US for providing Israel with classified information in violation of the Espionage Act.

He was released after serving 30 years in a US prison, and after the parole restrictions imposed on Pollard’s ability to leave New York ended, he and his wife moved to Jerusalem.

The pair wed in 1994, while Jonathan was still imprisoned, and Esther spent years advocating for the release of her husband.

In 1996, Esther went on a 19-day hunger strike to demonstrate against Jonathan’s imprisonment, but ended the protest after meeting with Israel’s then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

She explained that Netanyahu “publicly committed himself to bring Jonathan home,” according to Canadian Jewish News.

Following the death of his wife, Pollard said that Esther “was an amazing fighter,” according to the Jerusalem Post.