Israel places Palestinian icon Marwan Barghouti in solitary confinement

By Merve Berker

ANKARA (AA) – Israel has placed Marwan al-Barghouti, a prominent leader of the Palestinian Fatah group, in solitary confinement, Israel’s national security minister said Wednesday.

“I'm glad that the Israeli security service is implementing my very clear policy towards terrorists in prisons,” Itamar Ben-Gvir said on X.

Saying that Barghouti was taken by Israel’s Prisons Authority from Ofer prison in the West Bank after receiving a tip about his “planned uprising,” the Israeli far-right minister shared no further details about which prison he was put in.

Barghouti, 64, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, is most favored to chair the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority after President Mahmoud Abbas, according to Palestinian opinion polls.

He was arrested by Israel in 2002 and handed five life sentences.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, killing at least 28,576 people and injuring 68,291 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.