Palestine: Fatah warns of Israel’s attempts to eliminate prisoner Marwan Barghouti

Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, is facing an assassination attempt following “a decision from [Israeli PM] Benjamin Netanyahu’s government,” the Fatah movement has said.

Fatah asserted that “the assaults on Commander Marwan Barghouti, held in Megiddo Prison in northern occupied Palestine, constitute a targeted effort by an extremist occupation government to eliminate him.”

Two Palestinian organisations concerned with detainee rights reported, in a joint statement, that Barghouti and his fellow prisoners were subjected to “a brutal and dangerous assault” resulting in multiple injuries.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, revealed that on 9 September, the repression units of the Israel Prison Authority perpetrated a severe assault on Barghouti and several of his companions in Megiddo Prison’s solitary confinement cells.

Detainees, they said, “continue to face horrific treatment, including isolation, physical abuse, and complete denial of medical care, food, and basic rights as enshrined in international conventions.”

Fatah’s Central Committee has cautioned that “threatening the lives of Barghouti, other leaders, and the detainee movement as a whole could intensify the conflict with the occupation, increase tensions, and potentially result in severe consequences.”

Barghouti has been detained by Israeli authorities since 2002 and was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of being responsible for operations carried out by Fatah-affiliated armed groups, which resulted in casualties among Israelis.

Recent months have seen an increase in reports of severe mistreatment, including torture, abuse and humiliation, of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities.

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