Israeli guards injure Palestinian leader Barghouti with rubber bullet: family

Israeli prison guards shot jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti in the leg with a rubber bullet last week, his family said Monday, an incident denied by Israeli prison authorities.

A senior Fatah official arrested by Israel in 2002 and sometimes called the "Mandela of Palestine" by his supporters, Barghouti, 67, is serving five life sentences for murder and his role in attacks against Israelis during the second intifada.

"One of the prison guards fired a rubber bullet at Marwan's leg, causing him to bleed and inflicting a painful injury," his wife, Fadwa Barghouti, wrote on Facebook.

"It was a yet another episode in the ongoing assaults against him."

His son, Arab Barghouti, said the incident happened "some time last week" at Ganot prison in Israel's Negev desert.

He said the family learned about the incident from his father's lawyer and that Barghouti had not received medical treatment for the injury.

In a letter to the prison service, Barghouti's lawyer, prominent Israeli civil rights attorney Avigdor Feldman, said his client had "complained that he had been shot in the leg" when the two spoke during his last visit.

AFP reviewed a copy of the letter.

Israel Prison Service dismissed the allegation.

"The allegation described is false and entirely without factual basis," it said.

"The Israel Prison Service operates in accordance with the law and under constant judicial oversight."

In October 2025, Arab Barghouti said Israeli prison guards had severely beaten his father during a prison transfer the previous month, leaving him with four broken ribs and head injuries.

In August, a video shared on social media showed Israel's far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, threatening a physically weak Barghouti inside a jail.

On Sunday, the Arab League called for an international commission of inquiry into what it said were "repeated assaults" on Barghouti.

Barghouti was one of the leaders of the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, and is widely seen as a possible successor to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Despite being in prison, Barghouti won re-election to Fatah's Central Committee this year, receiving the highest number of votes.

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