Video shows prominent Palestinian prisoner for the first time in years

TEL AVIV, Israel — The world got a glimpse of one of the most famous Palestinian prisoners in Israel on Friday, Marwan Barghouti, for the first time in years.

A video posted by Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, shows him berating Barghouti in his prison cell.

“You will not win. He who messes with the people of Israel, he who will murder our children, he who will murder our women, we will wipe him out,” Ben-Gvir is recorded as saying.

It was not immediately clear when the video, which has been circulating widely in Israel and the occupied West Bank, was filmed.

In the 13-second cut of video that is circulating, Barghouti, 66, tries to respond but is unable to interject. He is pale, white haired, and shrunken — nearly unrecognizable from the dark, rotund man he once was, when he was a wildly popular politician tipped to be the next leader of the Palestinian Authority.

Now, he is serving five consecutive life sentences, after being convicted by an Israeli court in 2002 for helping plan attacks on civilians during a Palestinian uprising that came to be known as the Second Intifada.

“When I received the video, really I didn’t recognize Marwan. He lost a lot of weight and even his face is not what we were used to seeing,” Khader Shkirat, one of Barghouti’s lawyers, told NPR. He said he had to consult with Barghouti’s wife to confirm that the gaunt figure in the video was her imprisoned husband. 

The number of Palestinian detainees held by Israel has roughly doubled since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas. As of August 2025, there were around 10,700 Palestinians in Israeli custody — including several thousand held without trial — and, in many cases, also without charge, according to data provided by the Israel Prison Service to Israeli human rights group, Hamoked.

“The starvation of the prisoners is the same as they are imposing on Gaza,” Shkirat said.

The figures do not include the unknown number of Palestinians from Gaza detained in the past nearly two years of war.

Additionally, 76 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody in the past 22 months of war, according to Palestinian prisoners’ organizations.

In recent prisoner exchanges of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners, Israel has refused to release Barghouti, whose conviction and long imprisonment are widely viewed among Palestinians as politically motivated.

Officials close to ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel say Barghouti, who remains a unifying figure for many Palestinians, is the prisoner the group most wants released in hostage exchanges. The officials spoke anonymously to discuss details of the stalled talks.

Shkirat said they considered Ben-Gvir’s comments a threat and have appealed to the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to ensure that Barghouti is protected from assassination in Israeli detention.

He said despite having been excluded from previous proposed prisoner exchanges between Hamas and Israel, he believed Barghouti would be freed.

“Marwan will be free and leading his people and I hope Ben-Gvir will be in prison,” he said, referring to an arrest warrant reportedly prepared by the International Criminal Court for the Israeli minister.

Ben-Gvir, convicted in Israel on at least eight charges, including supporting a terrorism organization, does not shy away from publicity and has a history of stoking outrage.

Earlier this August, he openly recited a Jewish prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site revered by both Muslims and Jews. After the site was captured by Israel from Jordan in a 1967 war, the sensitive holy site was opened to both Muslim and Jewish visitors, but Jewish visitors are not allowed to pray there.

Ben-Gvir’s political party, the Jewish Power or Otzma Yehudit, has an anti-Arab platform which borrows ideology from two political parties associated with a radical, U.S.-born rabbi and which Israel has deemed terrorism organizations.

Ben-Gvir has also encouraged Jewish settlements in defiance of international law in the occupied West Bank. Since Israel’s war against Hamas began in 2023, Ben-Gvir, a settler himself, has focused on settling the Gaza Strip once again and has repeatedly called for Palestinians to be moved elsewhere to make room for Jewish settlements.

Aya Batrawy contributed reporting.