(ICSPR) The storming of the cell of the captive leader Marwan Barghouti and the threat to his life is a new war crime, and calls for urgent international intervention to protect prisoners
Date: 16 August 2025
Press Release
(ICSPR) – The storming of the cell of the captive leader Marwan Barghouti and the threat to his life is a new war crime, and calls for urgent international intervention to protect prisoners
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns the Israeli occupation forces, under the direct supervision of extremist minister Itamar Ben Gvir, for storming the cell of the captive leader Marwan Barghouti and directly threatening him, following his subjection to harsh solitary confinement for more than two years. This crime comes as part of a systematic retaliatory policy practiced by the occupation authorities against Palestinian prisoners, aimed at breaking their will and eliminating their national leaders.
The Commission affirms that what happened to prisoner Marwan Barghouti, and what more than 10,000 male and female prisoners in the occupation’s jails are subjected to—including physical and psychological torture, sexual harassment, deliberate medical neglect, solitary confinement, repeated raids, humiliation campaigns, and repression—constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law, especially the Geneva Conventions, which categorically prohibit threatening prisoners, endangering their lives, or treating them in an inhumane manner. Prisoners must be treated humanely in a way that respects their dignity and honor, and must not be subjected to any form of violence, torture, threat, or humiliation, including threats of killing, injury, or defamation against them or their families.
Accordingly, the threat made by Israeli terrorist minister Ben Gvir against prisoner Barghouti constitutes a war crime and a flagrant violation of these binding rules.
The International Commission (ICSPR) warns of the real dangers threatening the life of the leader prisoner Marwan Barghouti and all prisoners amid escalating crimes committed by the occupation against them. The Commission holds the occupation authorities fully responsible for the life of prisoner Marwan Barghouti and the rest of the prisoners in the occupation’s jails, especially in light of the prison administration’s escalating grave and systematic violations against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in its prisons and detention centers, amid the ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.
ICSPR states that the Israeli occupation currently detains more than 10,800 Palestinian prisoners, including over 49 female prisoners (among them two from the Gaza Strip) and 450 children, in addition to around 3,600 administrative detainees held without charges or trials, as well as approximately 2,400 prisoners from the Gaza Strip under the label of “unlawful combatants” who are subjected to enforced disappearance amid complete ambiguity surrounding their places of detention and fate, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law and the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions. These policies have also led to the martyrdom of more than 78 prisoners during the last two years as a result of torture and deliberate medical neglect, while hundreds of serious medical cases are still deprived of necessary healthcare, as part of a slow-killing policy.
ICSPR stresses that the grave violations committed by the Israeli occupation against prisoners and detainees in its jails rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and represent a stigma on the forehead of the international system and its institutions, which have failed to take any serious measures to stop these crimes and hold the perpetrators accountable. ICSPR condemns the continued silence of the international community on these serious violations, which contributes to the occupation’s persistence in committing further crimes against Palestinian prisoners.
Therefore, ICSPR calls on the international community, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, and regional and international human rights institutions to:
-
Intervene immediately to protect Palestinian prisoners and ensure their treatment in accordance with the rules of international humanitarian law and the provisions of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, and to put an end to the crimes committed against them.
-
Activate accountability mechanisms against Israeli occupation leaders and their partners before international justice, including the International Criminal Court, and issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including the terrorist minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
-
Strengthen popular, diplomatic, and legal efforts and pressures to secure the release of captive leader Marwan Barghouti and all Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the occupation’s prisons.
End
