Hamas condemns Israeli minister’s visit to jailed Fatah leader

Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq has denounced far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for visiting the prison cell of long-imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.

“There is no longer any meaning to brutality except in the form of one of the leaders of this inhumane entity,” al-Risheq wrote on Telegram.

He criticised the minister for confronting a shackled and isolated Barghouti, saying: “A Zionist minister gathers his army, his guards, and the blood of his state and stands before a captive leader, shackled and isolated in solitary confinement, barely able to stand, and addresses him, saying: ‘You will not triumph over us!’”

“If Ben-Gvir had been victorious in Gaza, he would not have said what he said. But this is the arrogance of a criminal who failed to achieve his goal, whose prestige was defeated, and whose reputation was tarnished by the shame of the ages,” al-Risheq added.