Barghouti Topped Hamas’s Prisoner List. Freeing Him Is a Red Line for Israel
Marwan Barghouti in Jerusalem's magistrate court, in 2012.
Photographer: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images
Hundreds of Palestinians were released from Israeli jails as part of an exchange at the heart of the ceasefire deal brokered between Hamas and Israel. But one was conspicuously absent: Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian leader who’s been jailed for more than two decades.
The 66-year-old former Fatah commander is serving five life sentences after being convicted of involvement in attacks that killed Israelis during the second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which started in 2000 and lasted around five years.