Six Palestinian inmates have surprisingly escaped a high-security Israeli prison in the early hours of Monday, according to the Israeli government and local news reports. Authorities at Gilboa prison said the prisoners who were held in the same cell, had dug a tunnel over a period of several months which was used as their escape route. They were discovered missing during a headcount conducted after a civilian spotted figures running near the prison walls at around 3 a.m., according to Haaretz.
Prison staff later found an entrance to a tunnel under a toilet in a cell shared by the six escaped prisoners, Haaretz reported.
The Israeli army said in a statement that its forces “help in pursuit of security prisoners who escaped from Gilboa prison,” and that it allocated planes to carry out surveillance missions.
The Prison Authority confirmed that it is working to transfer about 400 “security” detainees from the prison in anticipation of the presence of other tunnels below, according to AFP.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club published the names of the fugitives, Zakaria Al-Zubaidi, a former commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and five members of the “Islamic Jihad” movement.
According to the club, all the detainees who fled from the city of Jenin, four of them are sentenced to life. They are Mahmoud Ardah (46 years), who has been detained since 1996, Muhammad Ardah (39 years), who has been detained since 2002, and Yaqoub Qadri (49 years), who has been detained since 2003, and which of them are: Kammaji, 35, has been detained since 2006.
In addition to them are Al-Zubaidi (45 years old) and Munadil Nafeat (32 years old), both of whom have been detained since 2019.
Officials in the Prisons Authority and the Israeli Police confirmed the start of a large-scale combing operation involving the police, special forces, and the army, using sniffer dogs and helicopters, in addition to setting up checkpoints in the vicinity of the area.
The Israeli Prime Minister described the escape as a “serious accident”, stressing that he is following up on the incident and regularly receiving information about the search operations.
Islamic Jihad described the escape as a “great heroic act”, stressing in a brief statement that it “would cause a severe shock to the Zionist security system and constituted a severe blow to the occupation army.”
As for Hamas, it said it was “a heroic, brave act, a victory for the will and determination of our prisoners, and a real challenge to the Zionist security system.”
The prison in Israel is described as “Al Khazna Prison” because of the tight procedures in it, to prevent any escape attempt.
Israeli security commentator Yossi Melman wrote on Twitter, “As in the movies, this is not the first time, in July 1958 a violent revolution broke out from the prisoners in the prison. 2014, security prisoners dug a tunnel, but they exposed and thwarted their attempt.
According to the Addameer Foundation for Prisoner Care and Palestinian Human Rights, Gilboa Prison “was established under the supervision of Irish experts and opened in 2004, and it is described as the most guarded prison in Israel, and holds Palestinians in which Israel believes that they carried out operations inside the territory of 1948”.
The Israeli authorities have launched a massive manhunt for the six escaped prisoners.
