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 acquired 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’ll not win. He who messes with the folks of Israel, he who will homicide our kids, he who will homicide our girls, we’ll wipe him out,” Ben-Gvir is recorded as saying.
It was not instantly clear when the video, which has been circulating broadly 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 standard politician tipped to be the subsequent 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 often called the Second Intifada.
“After I acquired the video, actually I did not acknowledge Marwan. He misplaced a variety of weight and even his face isn’t what we have been used to seeing,” Khader Shkirat, considered one of Barghouti’s legal professionals, advised NPR. He mentioned he needed to seek the advice of with Barghouti’s spouse to verify 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, based on information offered by the Israel Jail Service to Israeli human rights group, Hamoked.
“The hunger of the prisoners is similar as they’re imposing on Gaza,” Shkirat mentioned.
The figures don’t embrace the unknown variety of Palestinians from Gaza detained prior to now practically two years of battle.
Moreover, 76 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody prior to now 22 months of battle, based on Palestinian prisoners’ organizations.
In latest prisoner exchanges of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners, Israel has refused to launch Barghouti, whose conviction and lengthy imprisonment are broadly 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 needs launched in hostage exchanges. The officers spoke anonymously to debate particulars of the stalled talks.
Shkirat mentioned they thought-about Ben-Gvir’s feedback a menace and have appealed to the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to make sure that Barghouti is protected against assassination in Israeli detention.
He mentioned regardless of having been excluded from earlier proposed prisoner exchanges between Hamas and Israel, he believed Barghouti can be freed.
“Marwan can be free and main his folks and I hope Ben-Gvir can be in jail,” he mentioned, referring to an arrest warrant reportedly ready by the Worldwide Prison Courtroom for the Israeli minister.
Ben-Gvir, convicted in Israel on not less than eight prices, together with supporting a terrorism group, doesn’t shrink 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 battle, the delicate holy website was opened to each Muslim and Jewish guests, however Jewish guests should not allowed to hope 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 battle in opposition to 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.
