Marwan Barghouti suffered multiple assaults in Israeli custody, highlighting escalating abuse of Palestinian prisoners [Getty]
Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti has been subjected to repeated “brutal assaults” inside Israeli prisons while held in solitary confinement, according to a rights campaign, as abuses against Palestinian detainees continue to escalate.
The Popular Campaign for the Release of Barghouti and Palestinian Prisoners said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli prison units had attacked Barghouti three times in less than a month, leaving him with injuries and bleeding across his body without receiving medical treatment.
The assaults reportedly took place on 24 and 25 March and again on 8 April inside Megiddo and Ramon prisons, where Barghouti is being held in isolation.
According to the campaign, Barghouti told his lawyer he had been subjected to “brutal physical assaults” in recent weeks, with prison forces using “various tools of repression” during the attacks, causing “injuries and bleeding across his body without being provided medical treatment”.
The group said the incidents form part of a broader pattern of systematic abuse against Palestinian prisoners, describing it as a “systematic series of brutal violations” that has intensified since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Barghouti, a senior figure in Fatah’s central committee, has spent decades in Israeli detention after being arrested in April 2002. He is widely regarded as one of the most prominent Palestinian political leaders and commands broad support.
Rights groups say conditions inside Israeli prisons have sharply deteriorated, with thousands of detainees facing beatings, starvation and medical neglect.
The campaign also pointed to a February incident in which Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reportedly stormed Barghouti’s cell and issued threats against him, according to footage circulated at the time.
More than 9,600 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including women and children, many under harsh conditions, according to Palestinian and Israeli rights organisations.
The campaign urged international bodies to intervene, warning that the continued abuse of prisoners reflects a wider system of violations that has intensified alongside Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.
