Advocacy Group: Barghouti Enduring “Slow Execution” Under “Israeli” Torture

By Staff, Agencies

A Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy organization has revealed that jailed Hamas leader Abdullah Barghouti is being subjected to what it described as “a form of slow execution” inside the “Israeli” entity’s maximum-security “Gilboa” Prison, where he has been held since his abduction more than twenty years ago.

In a statement released Monday, the Asra Media Office [AMO] said the 53-year-old, one of the most prominent leaders of the Palestinian Captive Movement, is facing extreme physical and psychological torture that places his life in immediate danger.

According to the AMO, “Israeli” prison authorities have been targeting Barghouti with relentless assaults for more than 25 months. Guards reportedly raid his cell around the clock—often with attack dogs—taunting him before holding him down and beating him brutally with batons. The attacks have left him with deep wounds and heavy bleeding, forcing fellow inmates to treat him with scraps of cloth and minimal supplies.

Barghouti, who is serving 67 life sentences, now suffers from multiple untreated injuries, including fractures in his right elbow and hand that have gone unhealed for months, a broken pinky finger, two fractured ribs, torn tendons and a loss of nearly 35 kilograms due to starvation and lack of nutrition.

The advocacy group further noted that guards have soaked him with water before electrocuting him and confined him to a cell infested with scabies, causing painful boils across his body. He has been reduced to sleeping on the floor to avoid worsening the infections. His mobility has deteriorated sharply, with near paralysis in one hand, and he is denied all medical treatment—including basic painkillers. Human rights organizations have also been prevented from accessing him.

The AMO stressed that Barghouti’s case is part of a broader campaign targeting leaders of the Palestinian Captive Movement, arguing that the treatment he endures goes far beyond punitive measures and constitutes an intentional attempt to end his life. The group called for urgent international intervention.

The statement situates Barghouti’s ordeal within the wider pattern of poor sanitation, torture, harassment, and systematic abuse faced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. Many inmates have resorted to prolonged hunger strikes to protest their conditions and unjust imprisonment.

Human rights organizations maintain that the entity continues to violate the rights afforded to detainees under the Fourth Geneva Convention and international law. According to the Palestine Detainees Studies Center, approximately 60 percent of Palestinian prisoners suffer from chronic illnesses, with numerous deaths occurring during detention or shortly after release as a result of severe medical neglect.