The first Fatah leader, Marwan Barghouti, appears before the Jerusalem court in 2012.
Bernat Arangue / AP
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Bernat Arangue / AP
Like Aviv, Israel – Le Monde had an overview of one of the most famous Palestinian prisoners in Israel on Friday, Marwan Barghouti, for the first time in years.
A video published by the far-right minister of Israel, Itamar Ben-Gvir, shows him to reprimand Barghouti in his prison cell.
“You will not win. He who disturbs the people of Israel, the one who will assassinate our children, the one who will assassinate our women, we wipe it,” said Ben-Gvir.
It was not immediately clear when the video, which was widely circulating in Israel and occupied West Bank, was filmed.
In the 13 -second video cup circulating, Barghouti, 66, tries to answer but is unable to intervene. It is pale, with white and narrowed hair – almost unrecognizable of the dark and rotoni man that he was in the past, when he was an extremely popular politician, considered the next leader of the Palestinian authority.
Now he serves five consecutive life sentences, after being sentenced by an Israeli court in 2002 for helping to plan attacks against civilians during a Palestinian uprising which became the second intifada.
“When I received the video, I really did not recognize Marwan. He lost a lot of weight and even his face is not what we used to see,” one of Barghouti’s lawyers told NPR. He said he had to consult Barghouti’s wife to confirm that the video silhouette of the video was her imprisoned husband.
The number of Palestinian detainees held by Israel has almost doubled since the mortal on October 7, 2023, attacking by Hamas. In August 2025, there were about 10,700 Palestinians in Israeli police custody – including several thousand people without trials – and, in many cases, also without indictment, according to data provided by the Israeli prison service to the Israeli Human Rights group, Hamoked.
“The famine of prisoners is the same as it imposes on Gaza,” said Shkirat.
The figures do not include the unknown number of Gaza Palestinians detained in the past few years of war.
In addition, 76 Palestinians died under the Israeli guard in the last 22 months of war, according to Palestinian prison organizations.
In recent exchanges of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners, Israel refused to release Barghouti, whose condemnation and long imprisonment are widely considered among Palestinians as political motivations.
Officials close to the cease-fire talks between Hamas and Israel claim that Barghouti, who remains a unifying figure for many Palestinians, is the prisoner that the group wishes to publish in hostage exchanges. Officials have taken the floor anonymous to discuss details of the talks in a standstill.
Shkirat said they considered Ben-Gvir’s comments as a threat and had appealed to the United States, Qatar and Egypt to ensure that Barghouti is protected against assassination in Israeli detention.
He said that despite having been excluded from the exchange of prisoners proposed between Hamas and Israel, he thought that Barghouti would be released.
“Marwan will be free and will direct his people and I hope that Ben-Gvir will be in prison,” he said, referring to an arrest warrant that would have been prepared by the International Criminal Court for the Israeli Minister.
Ben-GVir, found guilty in Israel for at least eight accusations, including the support of a terrorism organization, does not move away from advertising and has an unshakable story of indignation.
Earlier in August, he openly recited a Jewish prayer in the Al-Aqsa mosque complex, a site revered by Muslims and Jews. After the site was captured by Israel of Jordan in a 1967 war, the Saint Sensitive site was opened to Muslim and Jewish visitors, but Jewish visitors are not allowed to pray.
Ben-GVir’s political party, Jewish power or Otzma Yehudit, has an anti-arab platform that borrows ideology from two political parties associated with a radical rabbi and born in the United States and that Israel has deemed terrorism organizations.
Ben-Gvir also encouraged the Jewish colonies in defiance of international law in occupied West Bank. Since the War of Israel against Hamas began in 2023, Ben-Gvir, a colonist himself, has again focused on setting the Gaza Strip and asked several times that the Palestinians were moved elsewhere to make way for the Jewish colonies.
Aya Batrawy contributed the reports.
