The Israel Prison Service on Thursday placed Marwan Barghouti, the senior Fatah leader and one of the most prominent Palestinian leaders jailed in Israel, in solitary confinement after authorities discovered a mobile phone in his prison cell. Prison Service officials searched Barghouti's cell in the Hadarim prison in central Israel as part of routine inspections for banned items smuggled in by inmates. Wardens found a cell phone within Barghouti's personal belongings and subsequently transferred him to solitary confinement. An Israeli court sentenced Barghouti to five life terms in 2004 for masterminding terror attacks that killed five Israelis and wounded many more. Since the beginning of 2011, prison officials have confiscated at least 76 cell phones, 55 chargers, 51 memory cards and 435 SIM cards from family members attempting to smuggle them in to security prisoners. At Ketziot prison in the Negev, authorities recently intercepted a package of vine leaves and discovered 50 smuggled cell phones, phone chargers and SIM cards, all intended for convicted security prisoners. Criminals on both sides of the prison walls have even been bribing guards in their attempts to get cell phones into jails. Several guards have been arrested, and one warden, at the Eshel prison in Be'er Sheva, reported being offered NIS 150,000 by a security prisoner trying to obtain a cell phone. In light of the rampant smuggling, the Israel Prison Service's security personnel, intelligence services and technical units have decided to join forces in the hopes of stopping the trend. The prison service is currently testing two advanced screening devices, one for scanning visitors and one for scanning goods and packages arriving at the prison.
