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Israeli video appears to show Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike leader sneaking food in cell
Israel has released a video of what it says shows the high-profile leader of a mass hunger strike by Palestinian inmates sneaking food in his prison cell.
The prison service distributed footage on Sunday night of what appeared to show Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party who led the second Palestinian uprising, secretly eating biscuits and sweets.
The 58-year-old, who has been in prison since 2002, is serving five life terms for two shooting attacks and a bombing that killed five people.
Barghouti, who is kept in solitary confinement, is apparently seen in the footage unwrapping the biscuits in his cell before trying to covertly eat them in a toilet cubicle.
It has been reported that prison guards had snuck the food to Barghouti to try to tempt him to break the nearly three-week-long strike.
Palestinian officials organising the strike, who say some of the prisoners have become ill after only drinking water and salt, called the videos “absurd.”
Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, told reporters in Ramallah, West Bank, that it was fabricated and “intended to break the morale” of the more than 800 Palestinians in Israeli jails who have been refusing food since April 17.
The strikers are demanding more family visits and access to education, an end to solitary confinement, and better health care.
The video could prove damaging for Barghouti, who is popular among Palestinians and tipped to succeed the 82-year-old Mr Abbas as president.
While Barghouti and most of the other strikers belong to Mr Abbas’s Fatah party, some belong to its rival, Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.
The new leader of Hamas made his first public appearance in the new role on Monday, visiting a solidarity tent in his native Gaza for the hunger-striking prisoners.
Ismail Haniyeh replaced Qatar-based Khaled Mashaal in the Palestinian group's top position, as head of the political bureau. His win in secret internal elections was announced on Saturday.
Mr Haniyeh's rise was the latest sign of a power shift in the Islamic militant Hamas from the diaspora to Gaza, which has been under Hamas rule since a 2007 takeover.
This shift comes at a time of growing financial pressure on the territory by Hamas' main rival, Western-backed Mr Abbas, who in recent weeks has been trying to force the group to cede ground in Gaza.