Dramatic reports recently circulated by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club have stirred a media storm in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority, after claims that administrative detainee Ghassan Ibrahim Zawahreh was allegedly seriously wounded by rubber bullets inside Ketziot Prison and taken for treatment at Soroka Hospital. While the Israel Prison Service maintains complete silence, as is customary in internal security incidents, cross-checking Zawahreh’s past record with the nature of IPS special unit operations may shed light on the circumstances of the unusual incident.
According to the Palestinian narrative, Zawahreh’s current injury in June 2026 was the result of an arbitrary and deliberate assault. However, an objective assessment of prison dynamics presents a more complex picture. Zawahreh, known as a charismatic leader of Popular Front prisoners, was recently transferred to Ketziot Prison and firmly refused to undergo strict inspection and search procedures. His public standing inside the prison, together with his refusal to obey orders, likely made him a focus of active resistance. The deployment of the IPS elite unit “Masada”, which is called in only in extreme situations involving a threat to prison guards’ lives or fear of a wider uprising in a prison wing, indicates that a physical confrontation with explosive potential developed there. The use of rubber bullets at close range, which led to his hospitalization, was most likely the result of a focused attempt to neutralize violent resistance by him and by fellow prisoners in the wing.
Who Is Ghassan Zawahreh and What Is His Connection to Jerusalem?
Zawahreh, 44, a resident of the Dheisheh refugee camp in the Bethlehem area, is not a new face to the Israeli security establishment. He has a long history of about 17 years in prison in total – seven of them following convictions for membership in and leadership of cells belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror organization, and the rest in administrative detention. He began his organizational path as a prominent activist in the PFLP student wing at Bethlehem University. Even after completing his studies, he continued to guide and direct the organization’s student cells in East Jerusalem from afar – with an emphasis on Al-Quds University, using campuses as fertile ground for spreading incitement, recruiting young people and building infrastructures that served as a basis for terror activity.
His past also includes leading violent disturbances at friction points bordering southern Jerusalem, including the Gilo route, the Tunnels Road and the Rachel’s Tomb compound. His family connection to these clashes is bloodstained: in October 2015, during a wave of violent riots he led at the Rachel’s Tomb compound, his brother, Mutaz, was shot dead while throwing a Molotov cocktail at Border Police forces.
At this stage, the security blackout continues, and the full truth remains hidden behind prison walls.
