The Israeli prison guards' assault on the Palestinian leader, held in solitary confinement in Israeli prisons since the beginning of Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023, was the third in less than year.
He was subjected to a brutal assault in December 2023 in Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank and again in March of this year in Megiddo Prison in northern Israel.
Attorneys for the PPA learned of the incident following a recent visit to Megiddo Prison after a three-month ban by the Israeli prison authorities on visits to inmates, the PPA said in a statement on Sunday.
Megiddo's prison guards assaulted Barghouti on 9 September 2024 in his solitary cell, stated the PPA.
That assault left Barghouti with serious injuries to his back, ribs, and arms and legs, it added.
Barghouti's recovery has been slow and challenging as he struggles with limited mobility, chest and back pain, and untreated infected wounds, and ear inflammation caused by internal bleeding that was left untreated, the satement said.
Marwan Barghouti, 65, is a leading member of Fatah’s Central Committee who has been imprisoned in Israel since 2002 for his leading role in the Second intifada (2000-2003).
Additionally, the Popular Campaign for the Release of Marwan Barghouti said the most recent attack on him in September was particularly severe and appeared to be intended to inflict serious, long-term physical harm.
The campaign demanded international institutions and organizations to fulfill their duty to protect Barghouti and other Palestinian detainees in accordance with international law.
It added that the inability of international human rights organizations to address Palestinian prisoners' rights and reported crimes against them allows continued Israeli aggression as perpetrators feel immune from accountability.
It is worth noting that Hamas has included Barghouti's name in the list of Palestinian prisoners to be swapped for Israeli captives in any prsioner swap/ceasefire deal with Tel Aviv.
Israeli jails: Systematic torture
Prior to the start of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza in early October 2023, Tel Aviv imprisoned more than 5,000 Palestinians under harsh conditions in various high-security jails.
Since the start of the war, Israel detained an additional 11,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, in its jails as part of its crackdown in the occupied West Bank.
More than one-third of all Palestinian prsioners in Israeli jails are detained without charge or trial, according to the UN.
An unknown number of Palestinians prisoners arrested in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, including men, women, and children, are being arbitrarily held in detention facilities and ad hoc camps without any legal recourse.
In August, a report released by B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said thousands of Palestinian prisoners face systematic abuse and torture in Israeli jails.
Testimonies from 55 ex-detainees revealed "inhuman conditions," and more than a dozen prison facilities were being used as "de facto torture camps," added B'Tselem.
"The testimonies clearly indicated a systematic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel," the report said.
Ex-inmates described "frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions (and) sleep deprivation," it added.
In the same month, a panel of UN experts also warned of the "escalating use of torture" by Israel against Palestinian prisoners since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza.
“Israel’s widespread and systemic abuse of Palestinians in detention and arbitrary arrest practices over decades, coupled with the absence of any restraints by the Israeli State since 7 October 2023, paint a shocking picture enabled by absolute impunity,” the experts said.
Last winter, videos and images that angered millions around the world showed Israeli troops blind-folding and stripping-naked tens of Palestinians arrested in northern Gaza in the midst of severe cold conditions.
Israel also maintains a policy of concealing the number or locations of detaining Palestinians arrested in the Strip since the war started.
In recent days, amid a deadly campaign against the civilian population in northern Gaza, videos circulated on social media also showed Israeli troops again arresting and blindfolding tens of Palestinians, including children, and transporting them in trucks to unknown locations for interrogation.
Israel has also detained tens of doctors, medical staff, and EMTs since the start of the war on Gaza, thus depriving Palestinians wounded in Israeli bombardment any hope of receiving life-saving treatment.
On Friday, Israeli soldiers detained all male medical staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza after bombing and storming the hospital, and confined women in one of the hospital rooms without water or food,” according to the Palestinian health ministry.
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