Imprisoned Palestinian leader Abdullah Barghouti subjected to torture and systematic abuse in occupation prisons

Imprisoned Palestinian leader Abdullah Barghouti — one of the leadership prisoners that the Zionist occupation regime has repeatedly refused to release — is being subjected to severe torture and abuse inside the occupation prisons. As Zionist politicians, including the infamous fascist Minister of Internal Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, in charge of the occupation prisons, further their draft “law” for the execution of Palestinian prisoners, they continue to seek to legitimize the existing practice of slow assassination and extrajudicial killing inside the occupation jails.

Palestinian prisoners, especially the over 1468 Palestinians abducted from Gaza by invading genocidal forces currently held in the occupation military camps and prisons, in addition to the thousands of Palestinians from Gaza who have been liberated by the Resistance, are routinely subjected to physical and psychological torture, sexual assault and rape, starvation, denial of medical care, medical neglect, beatings, denial of access to hygiene and sanitation needs, denial of family and legal visits. Those being held in the underground Rakevet prison, including Palestinians from Gaza and Lebanese prisoners abducted from Lebanon, as well as those held in the notorious military camps like Sde Teiman, have been subjected to the worst abuses in a system constructed on torture. Over 83 names of Palestinians martyred in the occupation prisons in the past two years have been released, while a new report revealed that at least 98 Palestinians have been martyred in the prisons; however, hundreds of Palestinians’ bodies returned to Gaza show clear signs of being imprisoned and restrained, killed through torture or extrajudicial execution.

The imprisoned leadership prisoners are also singled out for severe abuse, particularly as they represent widely admired and respected figures within the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and within society as a whole, are representatives of the Palestinian resistance, and exemplify the commitment of the Palestinian people to achieve their liberation by any means necessary. The occupation seeks to humiliate and break the will of those whose unbroken will has become a symbol of the Palestinian people’s dedication to their land and liberation. They include Abdullah Barghouti, Ibrahim Hamed, Hassan Salameh, Abbas al-Sayyed, Ahmad Sa’adat, Marwan Barghouti, Jamal Abu al-Haija, Anas Jaradat, Muammar Shahrour, Mohammed Jamal Natsheh, Muhannad Shreim, Mohammed Arman, and many others, among the nearly 10,000 Palestinians imprisoned by the occupation.

Abdullah Ghaleb Barghouti, 53, and sentenced to 67 life sentences for his role as a leader and engineer in the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has been imprisoned since 5 March 2003. During that time, he has been repeatedly held in isolation and solitary confinement alongside other leadership prisoners. Most recently, he is being subjected to extreme physical torture and abuse in Gilboa Prison; in a statement, the Asra Media Office emphasized that the Zionist treatment of Barghouti is an “attempted slow execution against one of the most prominent leaders of the prisoners’ movement, and a crime that could lead to his martyrdom at any moment.”

Barghouti and his fellow leadership prisoners were immediately isolated after 7 October 2023 and the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, and further held in isolation throughout the US-imperialist-Zionist genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. He is currently held in Gilboa prison, where he has been subjected to systematic beatings for over 25 months. Occupation jailers have invaded his room at all hours of the day and night, accompanied by dogs, and beat him until he is bloody. His fellow prisoners in the isolation section have nothing to treat the wounds except for torn clothing and dubious water from the prison basin. For three months, he has suffered with untreated fractures and breaks in his elbow and palm, his fingers, two broken ribs, and a tear in the tendons of his hand. He has lost 35 kilograms (over 70 pounds) of weight as a result of the starvation policy imposed on the prisoners.

The Asra Media Office said that the jailers in Gilboa prison deliberately poured water on his body and then exposed him to electricity, in order to torture him through electrocution; he was also placed in a room with prisoners suffering from scabies without treatment, which led to him developing boils and sores on his body. He has severe difficulty moving his hands as a result, and is denied even basic painkillers, when, in the past, any Palestinian prisoner’s health issues were treated with paracetamol/acetaminophen.

Barghouti was beaten by the guards on 1 November 2025, 11 October 2025, 10 October 2025, and 30 September 2025, according to the most recent reports. On 30 August 2025, his severe beating at the hand of the Zionist prison guards led to the breaking of his elbow and palm, with visible deformation of the bones due to lack of treatment.

Abdullah Barghouti is a Jordanian-Palestinian citizen who was the leading engineer of the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, following the assassination of Yahya Ayyash.

His release, along with that of other imprisoned resistance leaders, like Ibrahim Hamed, Hassan Salameh, Abbas al-Sayyed, Ahmad Sa’adat and Marwan Barghouti, is one of the top priorities of the Palestinian resistance in a prisoner exchange. Inside the prisons, he wrote the novel/memoir, “Prince of the Shadow: Engineer on the Road” in 2012, presenting a fictionalized work based on his life story in prison, his resistance to the occupation, and his emergence within the resistance. He spent 10 continuous years in solitary confinement in the occupation prisons and has been repeatedly held in isolation; he has had less than 10 family visits during his 23 years of imprisonment.

These most recent reports follow the alarm raised by Barghouti’s daugher Tala, in April, when she reported that Barghouti has bruises and open wounds all over his body; his fellow prisoners in the occupation jails help him to disinfect his wounds with dishwashing liquid, as they are denied sanitary products and he is actively being denied access to healthcare.

“The lawyer left the visit with tears in her eyes, unable to convey the shock and anguish she witnessed. It encapsulated the daily torment of a prisoner whose dignity is being crushed without mercy,” Tala reported. He struggles to stand or to sleep due to his multiple injuries, including boils and bone fractures. He reported that occupation soldiers threatened Barghouti: “We will kill you as we killed Sinwar, all of you, one by one!” Multiple liberated prisoners have reported specific demands to curse the martyred Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other major national figures under torture inside the Zionist jails.

Abdullah Barghouti is a Jordanian-Palestinian citizen who was the leading engineer of the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, following the assassination of Yahya Ayyash.

Inside the prisons, he wrote the novel/memoir, “Prince of the Shadow: Engineer on the Road” in 2012, presenting a fictionalized work based on his life story in prison, his resistance to the occupation, and his emergence within the resistance. He spent 10 continuous years in solitary confinement in the occupation prisons and has been repeatedly held in isolation; he has had less than 10 family visits during his 23 years of imprisonment.

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We urge all supporters of Palestine and the Palestinian cause to speak out actively and take action through demonstrations, mass actions and direct actions to confront the abuse of Palestinian prisoners, including Abdullah Barghouti and fellow Palestinian leaders. The imperialist powers, like the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, that continue to arm, support and provide cover for the Zionist genocidal regime in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine, are fully implicated in these inhuman actions. This moment is no less urgent than that prior to the “ceasefire”, violated daily by the occupation.

Download:

• Poster of Abdullah Barghouti
• Abdullah Barghouti, “Prince of the Shadow: Engineer on the Road” Part 1
• Abdullah Barghouti, “The Living Martyr: Engineer on the Road” Part 2

Today, the Zionist regime is attempting to legitimize its policy of systematic rape, torture and abuse by passing the law of the execution of Palestinian prisoners. It is daily confiscating land and taking the lives of martyrs in the West Bank. It is conspiring with the United States and given free rein by the illegitimate and unjust Security Council resolution passed on 17 November to impose joint imperialist/Zionist occupation on Gaza. It is up to the international movement to not leave the prisoners, the resistance, and the Palestinian people alone to confront this vicious enemy.

Indeed, repressive acts by imperialist powers — such as the US’ and Canada’s sanctions on Samidoun on 15 October  2024— are meant to deprive the Palestinian prisoners’ movement of external support and solidarity, to hide the crimes being committed against them and prevent the perpetrators from being held accountable, and to limit, chill and suppress the growing movement for the liberation of Palestinian prisoners as part and parcel of the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. They especially seek to repress this movement as the Palestinian resistance has made clear that it insists upon and is committed to a proper prisoner exchange with dignity to release Palestinian leaders and all Palestinian prisoners in the Zionist jails. The repression in the imperial core is also meant as a mechanism of pressure against the Palestinian people, their prisoners and their Resistance.

Our entire movement must respond collectively to such repression by organizing even more loudly, clearly and effectively to shut down the imperialist-Zionist war machine, to support the Palestinian resistance and all forces of resistance in the region, and to ensure that the Palestinian prisoners are not now and will never be isolated from the Palestinian people, the Arab, Islamic and regional liberation causes, and the international movement for justice.

Freedom for all Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails! Victory to the Resistance!

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!