Abdallah Barghouti, 53, a senior Hamas operative serving 67 life sentences in an Israeli prison for his responsibility in the killing of 66 Israelis, including dozens of Jerusalem residents, claims that his detention conditions have significantly deteriorated since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. According to Barghouti, he has been subjected to harassment by prison guards and has suffered a dramatic decline in his physical condition. “I lost 43 kilograms in prison,” he said.
During a meeting at Gilboa Prison on December 14, 2025, with attorney Hassan Abbadi, an Israeli lawyer from Haifa who frequently represents security prisoners, Barghouti alleged that prison guards broke his hand. He described his incarceration conditions as “a slow execution.” According to his account, he is being held in an especially cold solitary confinement cell, without blankets or winter clothing, and claims that guards sometimes deliberately activate cold air conditioning to intensify his suffering.
Who is Abdallah Barghouti and what role did he play in Jerusalem’s deadliest attacks?
Abdallah Barghouti, widely known as “the bomb engineer,” is considered one of the most senior figures in Hamas’s military wing in the West Bank and one of the deadliest militants in Israel’s history. Born in Kuwait in 1972, Barghouti arrived in the Ramallah area in the late 1990s. He used technical knowledge acquired during engineering studies in South Korea to construct complex, high-powered explosive devices. Unlike other operatives, he did not always dispatch attackers himself, instead functioning as the technical mastermind behind multiple attacks.
Barghouti was responsible for a long series of attacks that shocked the country, including the September 9, 2001 bombing at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, in which 15 Israelis were killed and about 130 were wounded. He was also responsible for the twin bombing on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem on December 1, 2001, which killed 11 people, as well as the March 9, 2002 attack at the Moment Cafe in Jerusalem, where 11 people were killed. In addition, Barghouti was behind the July 31, 2002 bombing at the Hebrew University, which killed nine people, and the May 7, 2002 attack at the Sheffield Club in Rishon LeZion, where 15 people were killed.
Why does Hamas place Barghouti at the top of prisoner exchange demands?
Barghouti was convicted of responsibility for the killing of 66 Israelis and, in 2004, was sentenced to 67 life terms, the harshest sentence ever imposed on a militant in Israel. He is regarded as a symbolic figure and one of the informal leaders among security prisoners. While incarcerated, he published several books, including The Engineer on the Way, which have become sources of inspiration for young Palestinians on social media platforms.
Hamas views Barghouti as a “strategic asset” and has consistently placed his name at the top of prisoner exchange demands. This was the case during the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal and again in the most recent hostage negotiations, though Israel has repeatedly refused to include him in such exchanges. Current complaints regarding his detention conditions have received extensive coverage in Palestinian media and social networks and are part of a broader campaign seeking the release of high-profile prisoners whom Israel has so far declined to free.
