Israel court rejects appeal by jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti 

Israel’s Nof HaGalil District Court yesterday rejected a petition filed by prominent Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti against his prison conditions, local media outlets reported.

The Hebrew Israel Hayom newspaper said the court categorically rejected the petition submitted by Barghouti to ease his detention conditions.

Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences plus 40 years, filed a petition demanding that his detention in solitary confinement be halted and his living conditions in prison be improved.

According to the paper, the judge accepted the Israeli army’s position, which claims the media portrayal of Barghouti as a “freedom fighter” does not match the intelligence materials possessed by the army.

The judge also claimed in his ruling that intelligence officials believe detaining Barghouti in regular wings will strengthen the Hamas movement and thus “contribute to a variety of negative events within the prison”.

In March, Israeli prison guards severely attacked Barghouti, causing him to suffer bleeding in his eye.

READ: Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti beaten by guards

The 64-year-old, who is a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, is being subjected to isolation, torture and humiliation, his wife, Fadwa Barghouti, has said.

Fadwa explained that her husband’s life and the lives of other prominent prisoners are in great danger, adding that the Israeli prison administration “deliberately brutalises them in order to break their morale.”

Barghouti was arrested in 2002 and later sentenced to five life terms on charges of “killing and injuring Israelis.”

In parallel with the onslaught on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, Israel has increased raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank, detaining more than 7,000 Palestinians, alongside a campaign of harassment carried out against prisoners in Israeli jails, resulting in the deaths of at least 14 prisoners since 7 October 2023.