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Rubber bullet inside prison
Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet by an Israeli prison guard at Ganot Prison in the Negev desert, his family said, and his wife Fadwa Barghouti said he was left bleeding and prohibited from receiving treatment.
Arab Barghouti said the incident happened "some time last week" and that Barghouti had not received medical treatment for the injury.
The Israeli Prison Service denied the allegation, saying "The allegation described is false and entirely without factual basis," and stated that it operates under constant judicial oversight.
Palestine Chronicle reported that the guard fired the rubber bullet at point-blank range, leaving Barghouti wounded and bleeding inside prison without medical treatment, according to his family.
Family, lawyers, and denial
Fadwa Barghouti wrote on Facebook that "One of the prison guards fired a rubber bullet at Marwan's leg, causing him to bleed and inflicting a painful injury," and she said the family learned of the shooting following his most recent prison visit.
Her account was echoed by the Palestine Chronicle report that Barghouti was prohibited from receiving treatment and that the family said he was neither transferred to a hospital nor provided with medication after the latest attack.
Al-Monitor reported that Barghouti’s lawyer, prominent Israeli civil rights attorney Avigdor Feldman, told the prison service in a letter that Barghouti "complained that he had been shot in the leg" during their last visit.
At the same time, the Israeli Prison Service dismissed the allegation, asserting that its staff work in accordance with the law and under ongoing judicial oversight.
Hunger strike and international pressure
The incident was described as part of a broader pattern of assaults and medical neglect, with Palestine Chronicle saying the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office reported Barghouti had been subjected to approximately seven severe assaults since the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza in October 2023.
Middle East Eye reported that about 1,500 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons joined a hunger strike aimed at protesting their detention conditions, and it said the hunger strike is led by Marwan Barghouti.
In the West Bank, Middle East Eye said Israelis organized a barbecue near a checkpoint facing Ofer Prison to taunt Palestinian hunger-striking detainees, quoting organizer Ofer Sofer saying, "Right now the hunger-strikers can smell the food."
The Arab League called for an international commission of inquiry into what it said were "repeated assaults" on Barghouti, and it also demanded an independent medical visit and transfer to a hospital outside the prison system.
