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Barghouti breaks hunger strike

[ssba]

The Israeli Prison Service has released a video that reportedly shows Palestinian prisoner and hunger strike leader Marwan Barghouti secretly eating in his cell last Friday.

Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences and 40 years in prison for three terrorist attacks that killed five people, announced a prisoner’s hunger strike on April 17th after demands for improved prison conditions were not met.

The video shows Barghouti eating biscuits and chocolate in the bathroom of his cell in Kishon Prison. Barghouti then tried to hide the evidence by flushing it down the toilet.

Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said: “As we’ve been saying the entire time, the terrorists’ hunger strike has nothing to do with the conditions of incarceration, which meet international standards, but only with the political interests of Marwan Barghouti inside the prison walls or in the Palestinian Authority.”

Barghouti’s wife Fadwa said that the video had been “fabricated”, whilst the Palestinian National Committee for the Support of the Prisoners’ Strike said that the clip had been filmed in 2004 and was meant to sow confusion among the prisoners.

According to Israeli sources there are currently 894 prisoners involved in the hunger strike, a significant decrease from the reported 1314 prisoners who were taking part at its highest point.

Barghouti is a popular figure in Palestinian society and is seen as a possible successor to current Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Some analysts in Israel have pointed to the hunger strike as a bid by Barghouti to show Abbas he still wields significant political power.