Ben-Gvir threatens detained 66-year-old 'Palestinian Nelson Mandela'

Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told a Palestinian political pensioner that he would "wipe" out Palestinians.

In a visit that was captured on social media, Ben-Gvir told 66-year-old Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who has been detained by Israel since 2002, that: "You won’t win. Whoever messes with the nation of Israel, whoever murders our children and women – we will wipe them out. You should know this, [this happened] throughout history.”

Barghouti has spent years in solitary confinement, and relatives expressed concern that Israel would kill him in custody. Last year, Israeli prison authorites seriously physically assualted him while he was in solitary confinement. 

Relatives told Al Jazeera Arabic that Barghouti had deteriorated since the last time they had seen him, noting there was a “shocking” change in his features which they put down to “exhaustion and hunger”.

Barghouti is dubbed the 'Palestinian Nelson Mandela,' and remains extrememly popular among Palestinians.