The minister me with Fadwa Barghouti, wife of imprisoned political figure Fatah Marwan Barghouti in the headquarters of the Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday.

During her meeting with Shoukry, Barghouti extended her appreciation for Egypt’s great efforts in supporting the Palestinian cause and Egyptian solidarity with the plight of the Palestinian prisoners, the ministry said in a statement.

Shoukry highlighted Egypt’s efforts in achieving calm in the occupied lands and resuming the peace process, the statement said.

Egyptian efforts in this regard aim at fulfilling the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people by establishing an independent state based on the 4 June 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, Shoukry stressed.

Shoukry’s meeting with Barghouti comes on the heels of Palestinian inmates continuing their civil disobedience measures for the 27th day in a row, protesting an Israeli repression campaign.

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have vowed to intensify their protests, which will escalate to a hunger strike starting in the holy fasting month of Ramadan, according to the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) on Sunday.

The disobedience measures came in response to a decision by Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir to cancel a policy allowing lawmakers in the Israeli Knesset to visit incarcerated Palestinians, according to the WAFA.

Popular political leader and figurehead of the first and second Palestinian Intifadas (uprisings) Marwan Barghouti is currently serving five life sentences and another 40-year prison sentence on murder charges.

Barghouti was convicted of five counts of murder including Israelis and a Greek monk in 2004, two years after his arrest in 2002 in Ramallah. He refused to recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli court.

Barghouti is widely seen as the likely successor of incumbent Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, announcing his candidacy for the presidency inside the prison in 2021 before the elections were cancelled.

Egypt has called for the revival of a peaceful process at the earliest opportunity, seeing it as the only way to achieve comprehensive regional peace and urged Israel to cease provocative actions and unilateral measures against Palestinians, including settlement expansion.