Israeli minister taunts imprisoned Palestinian leader not seen in years
Marwan Barghouti, a leading member of the Palestinian Fatah party, has spent more than 20 years behind bars after being sentenced for his role in anti-Israeli attacks in the early 2000s.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the ultra-nationalist minister, visited him in his cell and shared footage of the encounter on X. It is the first time Barghouti has been seen publicly in years.
In the clip, the minister and two other individuals, including a prison guard, surround Barghouti in a corner of his cell.
'You will not defeat us. Whoever harms the people of Israel, whoever kills children, whoever kills women... we will erase them,' Mr Ben-Gvir says in Hebrew.
Barghouti, known by his supporters as 'the Palestinian Mandela', tries to respond but is interrupted by Ben Gvir, who says: 'No, you know this. And it's been the case throughout history.'
The video does not specify where Barghouti is currently being held.
Sources told AFP the meeting took place 'by chance' at the Ganot prison in southern Israel during a ministerial visit.
'This morning I read that various 'senior officials' in the Palestinian Authority didn't quite like what I said to arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti – may his name be erased,' Mr Ben-Gvir said in the post accompanying the video on Friday morning.
'So I will repeat it again and again, without apology – whoever messes with the people of Israel, whoever murders our children, whoever murders our women, we will wipe them out. With God's help.'
Solitary confinement
Barghouti, who is now in his 60s, was arrested by Israel in 2002 and sentenced to life on murder charges in 2004. Israel considers him a terrorist and convicted him over his role in the second intifada, or uprising, from 2000-2005. He often tops opinion polls of popular Palestinian leaders.
Rights groups say Barghouti has been held in solitary confinement since Oct 7 2023, the day Hamas launched its deadly attacks on Israel. Palestinian supporters have accused guards of 'brutally assaulting' him, which the Israeli prison service has denied.
Arab Barghouti, his son, told AFP he was shocked by the video, both at the state of his father, whom he had not seen in three years, and at what he called the 'blatantly arrogant' minister.
'He's lost a lot of weight, and he looks old,' he said of his father. 'They will not break his image in the eyes of the Palestinian people.'
In a statement released by Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, the Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry denounced the confrontation as 'an unprecedented provocation'.
Responding to the video in a post on X, the Palestinian mission to the United Nations said Barghouti was 'enduring extremely harsh humanitarian conditions in his solitary confinement cell'. It added that he had 'lost more than half his weight due to deliberate medical neglect and mistreatment'.
'At the same time, extremist Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir continues to directly threaten him in an attempt to break his will and resilience,' it said.
It is understood Hamas have sought to exchange Barghouti for the remaining Israeli hostages it holds, but Israel is unlikely to free him.
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