ISRAEL: Palestinian hunger strike leader ”filmed eating”

Israel’s prison service has released a video purportedly showing the leader of a three-week-old hunger strike by Palestinian inmates eating in his cell. The service said Marwan Barghouti had been filmed consuming cookies in secret on 27 April and a snack bar on 5 May. It did not say how he obtained the food, but […]

Israel’s prison service has released a video purportedly showing the leader of a three-week-old hunger strike by Palestinian inmates eating in his cell. The service said Marwan Barghouti had been filmed consuming cookies in secret on 27 April and a snack bar on 5 May. It did not say how he obtained the food, but sources told the Haaretz newspaper that he had been set up.

Barghouti’s wife said the footage was “fake” and intended to break the morale of the hunger strike’s participants.

More than 890 prisoners have been refusing food since 17 April in protest at conditions in Israeli jails.