Israeli minister threatens Palestinian inmate Barghouti

Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir published a video on Friday in which he confronts the most high-profile Palestinian detainee in Israeli custody in his prison cell.

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Marwan Barghouti, a leading member of the Palestinian Fatah party, has spent more than 20 years behind bars after being sentenced for his role in anti-Israeli attacks in the early 2000s.

In the clip published by Ben Gvir on X, the minister and two other individuals, including a prison guard, surround Barghouti in a corner of his cell.

"You will not defeat us. Whoever harms the people of Israel, whoever kills children, whoever kills women... we will erase them," Ben Gvir says in Hebrew.

Barghouti tries to respond but is interrupted by Ben Gvir, who says: "No, you know this. And it's been the case throughout history." The video does not specify where Barghouti is currently being held.

Contacted by AFP, sources close to Ben Gvir said the meeting took place "by chance" in Ganot prison in southern Israel during an inspection visit by the minister, but they would not say when the footage was filmed.

"This morning I read that various 'senior officials' in the Palestinian Authority didn't quite like what I said to Marwan Barghouti — may his name be erased," Ben Gvir said in the post accompanying the video on Friday morning.