Overview
- The national security minister’s office confirmed that Ben-Gvir visited Barghouti in Ganot Prison earlier this week and authenticated the released footage.
- In the 13-second clip, Ben-Gvir tells the frail detainee that anyone who ‘messes with the people of Israel’ will ‘be wiped out.’
- Relatives and prisoner groups decried Barghouti’s gaunt appearance as evidence of extended solitary confinement and possible mistreatment, charges the Israel Prisons Service rejects.
- The Palestinian Authority denounced the encounter as “organized state terrorism” and said it will pursue International Committee of the Red Cross intervention and wider international action.
- Human rights advocates and diplomats are now intensifying scrutiny of far-right cabinet members’ use of prison visits as political provocation and the broader treatment of Palestinian detainees in the war context.