Senior Fatah chief Marwan Barghouti seems in courtroom in Jerusalem in 2012.
Bernat Armangue/AP
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Bernat Armangue/AP
TEL AVIV, Israel — The world obtained a glimpse of one of the crucial well-known Palestinian prisoners in Israel on Friday, Marwan Barghouti, for the primary time in years.
A video posted by Israel’s far-right nationwide safety minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, reveals him berating Barghouti in his jail cell.
“You will not win. He who messes with the people of Israel, he who will murder our children, he who will murder our women, we will wipe him out,” Ben-Gvir is recorded as saying.
It was not instantly clear when the video, which has been circulating extensively in Israel and the occupied West Financial institution, was filmed.
Within the 13-second lower of video that’s circulating, Barghouti, 66, tries to reply however is unable to interject. He’s pale, white haired, and shrunken — practically unrecognizable from the darkish, rotund man he as soon as was, when he was a wildly in style politician tipped to be the following chief of the Palestinian Authority.
Now, he’s serving 5 consecutive life sentences, after being convicted by an Israeli courtroom in 2002 for serving to plan assaults on civilians throughout a Palestinian rebellion that got here to be generally known as the Second Intifada.
“When I received the video, really I didn’t recognize Marwan. He lost a lot of weight and even his face is not what we were used to seeing,” Khader Shkirat, one among Barghouti’s attorneys, informed NPR. He stated he needed to seek the advice of with Barghouti’s spouse to substantiate that the gaunt determine within the video was her imprisoned husband.
The variety of Palestinian detainees held by Israel has roughly doubled because the lethal Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas. As of August 2025, there have been round 10,700 Palestinians in Israeli custody — together with a number of thousand held with out trial — and, in lots of circumstances, additionally with out cost, in accordance with information offered by the Israel Jail Service to Israeli human rights group, Hamoked.
“The starvation of the prisoners is the same as they are imposing on Gaza,” Shkirat stated.
The figures don’t embrace the unknown variety of Palestinians from Gaza detained prior to now practically two years of struggle.
Moreover, 76 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody prior to now 22 months of struggle, in accordance with Palestinian prisoners’ organizations.
In current prisoner exchanges of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners, Israel has refused to launch Barghouti, whose conviction and lengthy imprisonment are extensively considered amongst Palestinians as politically motivated.
Officers near ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel say Barghouti, who stays a unifying determine for a lot of Palestinians, is the prisoner the group most desires launched in hostage exchanges. The officers spoke anonymously to debate particulars of the stalled talks.
Shkirat stated they thought-about Ben-Gvir’s feedback a risk and have appealed to the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to make sure that Barghouti is protected against assassination in Israeli detention.
He stated regardless of having been excluded from earlier proposed prisoner exchanges between Hamas and Israel, he believed Barghouti can be freed.
“Marwan will be free and leading his people and I hope Ben-Gvir will be in prison,” he stated, referring to an arrest warrant reportedly ready by the Worldwide Legal Courtroom for the Israeli minister.
Ben-Gvir, convicted in Israel on not less than eight prices, together with supporting a terrorism group, doesn’t draw back from publicity and has a historical past of stoking outrage.
Earlier this August, he brazenly recited a Jewish prayer on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a website revered by each Muslims and Jews. After the positioning was captured by Israel from Jordan in a 1967 struggle, the delicate holy website was opened to each Muslim and Jewish guests, however Jewish guests should not allowed to wish there.
Ben-Gvir’s political get together, the Jewish Energy or Otzma Yehudit, has an anti-Arab platform which borrows ideology from two political events related to a radical, U.S.-born rabbi and which Israel has deemed terrorism organizations.
Ben-Gvir has additionally inspired Jewish settlements in defiance of worldwide legislation within the occupied West Financial institution. Since Israel’s struggle towards Hamas started in 2023, Ben-Gvir, a settler himself, has targeted on settling the Gaza Strip as soon as once more and has repeatedly referred to as for Palestinians to be moved elsewhere to make room for Jewish settlements.
Aya Batrawy contributed reporting.
