“Barghouti is a murderer and hypocrite who urged his fellow prisoners to strike and suffer while he ate behind their back,” Mr. Erdan said. “Israel will not give in to extortion and pressure from terrorists.”
Palestinian officials organizing the strike called the videos, filmed from above, “absurd.” Mr. Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, told reporters in Ramallah, West Bank, that Israel was “trying to stop the strike in any way, resorting to despicable acts,” but that “this video will increase the prisoners’ insistence on continuing.”
The strikers’ demands include more family visits and access to education, an end to solitary confinement, and better health care.
Organizers say the prisoners, some of whom have fallen ill, have survived on only water and salt. Israeli officials allege that some are taking vitamin supplements.
While Mr. Barghouti and most of the other strikers belong to Mr. Abbas’s Fatah party, some belong to its rival, Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip. About 6,500 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons.
In Gaza, Maryam Abu Daqqa of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called the videos “a false attempt to create chaos” in the movement. The strike “will continue until Palestinians’ just demands are met,” she said.
