August 16, 2025

Get ready for a showdown full of fire and fury! Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, dropped a jaw-dropping video this Friday. What’s the buzz? He confronts Marwan Barghouti, the most famous Palestinian prisoner, right inside his jail cell! Barghouti, a top Fatah leader, has been locked up for over 20 years. He was sentenced for his part in anti-Israeli attacks during the early 2000s. In the video, Ben Gvir is with two others, including a prison guard, towering over Barghouti in a corner of the cell. The minister's message is loud and clear: "You will not defeat us. Whoever harms the people of Israel, whoever kills children, whoever kills women... we will erase them," he says in Hebrew. Barghouti tries to answer, but Ben Gvir cuts him off with, "No, you know this. And it's been the case throughout history." Where was this tense moment? Sources close to Ben Gvir say it happened "by chance" during a visit to Ganot prison in southern Israel. But the exact date remains a mystery. Ben Gvir also fired a strong message on his social media post: "This morning I read that various 'senior officials' in the Palestinian Authority didn't quite like what I said to arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti -- may his name be erased. So I will repeat it again and again, without apology: whoever messes with the people of Israel, whoever murders our children, whoever murders our women -- we will wipe them out. With God's help." Barghouti, now in his sixties, was arrested in 2002 and sentenced in 2004 to life for murder charges related to the second intifada from 2000 to 2005. Israel calls him a "terrorist," but many Palestinians see him as a strong leader and sometimes call him the "Palestinian Mandela." The Palestinian Authority was quick to slam this confrontation as "an unprecedented provocation," according to the official news agency Wafa. The Palestinians also shared concerns about the harsh conditions Barghouti faces. The Palestinian mission to the United Nations said he is "enduring extremely harsh humanitarian conditions in his solitary confinement cell" and has "lost more than half his weight due to deliberate medical neglect and mistreatment." Adding fuel to the fire, Hamas political bureau member Izzat al-Rishq said about Ben Gvir, "there is no meaning of savagery left that has not been embodied by" him. This video and its harsh words have stirred the pot big time in the tense Israeli-Palestinian saga. Stay tuned for more twists in this political drama!

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Tags: Itamar ben gvir, Marwan barghouti, Palestinian detainee, Fatah, Israeli prison, Political confrontation,