Eurasia Press & News
Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti has been assaulted seven times in Israeli prisons since the start of the Gaza war, according to prisoner rights groups.
Senior Palestinian Fatah leader and longtime prisoner Marwan Barghouti has been subjected to seven “brutal assaults” inside Israeli prisons since the start of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza two years ago, according to Palestinian prisoners’ rights organisations.
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said that Barghouti, a member of Fatah’s central committee, had suffered multiple violent attacks by Israeli prison authorities, resulting in several broken ribs.
The statement said the most recent assault took place on 15 September 2025, one month after Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, stormed Barghouti’s cell and threatened him.
However, some more recent reports of attacks on Barghouti have proven to be false, and are believed to be a form of psychological warfare by Israel against the prominent Palestinian detainee.
The two organisations said Barghouti’s lawyer was able to visit him on Monday, confirming that recent reports received by the family via an anonymous call claiming that he had been violently attacked inside his cell were false.
They said the call was part of a campaign of systematic intimidation targeting Barghouti and his family.
According to the lawyer’s account, Barghouti appeared at the visit in a stable condition and was fully conscious and mentally alert, despite continuing to suffer from the effects of repeated physical assaults in recent months and from the harsh and degrading conditions of detention.
These include the deliberate withholding of food and starvation, which they said now affects all Palestinian prisoners.
The Commission and the Prisoners’ Club said Israeli prison authorities had continued to systematically target detainees, particularly leaders of the prisoners’ movement, many of whom were held in prolonged solitary confinement for more than two years and subjected to repeated and brutal assaults.
They warned that these practices form part of clear attempts to physically eliminate leaders of the prisoners’ movement, alongside a policy of “slow execution” against detainees, as Israel’s government pushes to fast-track controversial legislation allowing the execution of Palestinian prisoners.
After the Gaza ceasefire agreement reached in October, Israeli authorities released just under 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, while Hamas released all the living Israeli captives it held and returned the remains of the dead ones.
However, Israel has refused to release high profile prisoners, including Barghouti.
Israeli authorities have instead escalated a coordinated campaign of psychological warfare, particularly against prisoner leaders, involving renewed solitary confinement, intensified humiliation and repeated assaults.
The organisations said that attacks on prisoner leaders often occur during transfers between isolation units, especially during movements between Janot Prison, a facility part of the larger Ramon Prison, and Megiddo Prison.
These operations are carried out by the Nahshon unit, one of Israel’s most notorious prison forces, which they accused of conducting systematic assaults aimed at killing prisoners, whether during transfers between prisons or in the final hours before release.
According to Palestinian figures, about 9,300 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including around 3,400 in administrative detention (without a charge or a trial) and at least 350 children.
