From the Liveblog of
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Hamas claims Abdullah Barghouti assaulted by Israeli jailer; no comment from prison service
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Hamas accuses Israel of the “direct assault and deliberate beating” of Abdullah Barghouti, a Hamas commander serving life in Israeli jail since 2003 for his role in terror attacks that killed dozens of Israelis during the Second Intifada.
The Hamas-affiliated Asra prisoner affairs agency says a jailer at Israel’s Gilboa Prison slammed Barghouti’s head against an iron door as Barghouti was on his way to a prison visit, leading him to bleed from near his left eye.
The agency also says Barghouti’s body weight dropped from 110 to 60 kilograms (243 to 132 pounds) as a result of Israel’s “starvation policy.”
The agency’s statement does not specify when Barghouti was injured, nor when his body weight started dropping.
The Israel Prison Service does not respond to a request for comment. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the IPS, has publicly touted the reduction of Palestinian prisoners’ rations during his tenure.
In a statement to Al Jazeera, Barghouti’s family says it learned from his lawyer that he is subject to “continuous assaults” in prison: “We fear for his life.”
Meanwhile, top Hamas official Abdul Rahman Shadid claims in a statement that “what happened to the commander Barghouti is an example of what thousands of prisoners are subject to” in Israeli jails, and calls for an “escalation of popular, media and legal action” against the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
The Times of Israel Community.