6 Palestine defenders escape from Israhellie high-security prison

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Manhunt launched after 6 Palestinian militants escape high-security Israeli prison by tunnel through drainage system
https://www.rt.com/news/534041-manhunt-launched-palestinian-militants-prison-escape/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome

Six Palestinian militants are on the run after tunneling their way through a small opening in their cells in a high-security prison in northern Israel, which has prompted a manhunt from the police and military.

In the early hours of Monday morning, six men escaped from the high-security Gilboa Prison, where scores of Palestinians who have been found guilty, or are suspected, of executing anti-Israeli attacks are serving sentences. The center is located around 4km (2 miles) from the occupied West Bank.

Five of the six runaway prisoners belong to the Islamic Jihad movement, while the sixth – Zakaria Zubeidi – is a former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades armed military group.

A passageway, only just large enough for a grown man to squeeze through, was found in the bathroom of the men's cell and was connected to the prison's drainage system. Another tunnel was discovered on a road on the south side of the facility, as shown by local media.

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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett expressed his condemnation at the jailbreak ahead of the Jewish new year, calling it a "grave incident" that required extensive surveillance.

The escape has prompted a massive manhunt in the surrounding areas of northern Israel and the West Bank. Drones, helicopters and checkpoints have been deployed by Tel Aviv's armed forces and police to locate the prisoners. Israeli officials expect that the escapees will attempt to make a run for Jordan or to Jenin, a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank.

A spokesperson for Islamist militant group Hamas, Fawzi Barhoum, hailed the escape as a "victory."

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades carried out a string of deadly attacks against Israelis during the 2000-2005 Palestinian uprising.

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This week's Palestinian prison break from Israeli jail could threaten the country's entire security establishment and Fatah
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/534182-palestinian-prison-break-threat/

Like something straight out of a Hollywood movie, six Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences managed to escape from 'The Safe', one of Israel's most secure jails.

The great escape has sparked outrage among Israelis, celebrations amongst Palestinians, and represents an embarrassing failure for Israel's security apparatus, which could lead to an explosion of violence across the occupied Palestinian territories.

On Monday at approximately 1am local time, guards at Israel's Gilboa prison realized that six detainees were missing from their cell. The maximum security jail and its staff had failed to prevent the inmates from escaping using a tunnel, which they reportedly used to travel underneath Gilboa's outer wall. Local farmers near the prison said they saw suspicious figures fleeing through farmland.

In the wake of the escape, Palestinians staged celebratory marches through the streets of cities in the West Bank and Gaza, sparking fears among the Israeli political establishment of what may come next as a result of the capture or killing of the escaped prisoners. According to Israeli Minister of Public Security Omer Bar Lev, "precise and detailed planning" had led to the escape, whilst Israel's Channel 12 stated that Bar Lev should consider relieving Israel's Prison Service Commissioner Katy Perry of her duty.

All major Palestinian political parties congratulated the prisoners on their escape, except for the Fatah Party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Instead, Abbas made phone calls to Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Defence Minister Benny Gantz to congratulate them on the Jewish religious holiday of Rosh Hashanah and stressed the need for greater collaboration.

The most significant aspect of this prison break is what it could pave the way for inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Five of the six escaped detainees are members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Party, whilst the other, Zakaria Zubeidi, is a former leader of Fateh's now disbanded Tanzim militia group attached to the al-Aqsa Martys brigades. Zakaria Zubeidi, who originates from the West Bank city of Jenin, commands a great deal of respect from Palestinians for coordinating armed resistance against Israel during the second Intifada (Palestinian uprising). Jenin has notably become a focal point for armed resistance against Israel in the past year, with independent groups of youths forming small militia-type groups which have confronted occupation forces.

Zubeidi, who was let out of prison in a Palestinian Authority-negotiated amnesty deal in 2007, was later arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment, with the Israeli Shin Bet (secret police) claiming he resumed operations and had confessed to two attacks on Israeli forces in 2018 and 2019. With Zubeidi, a national figure of armed resistance having escaped, the biggest consideration for Israel will likely be what he chooses to do next.

Armed gunmen in Jenin took to the streets on Monday night following the prisoner escape operation, possibly indicating that armed groups in the city may have been inspired to wage armed resistance attacks as a result of it. If Zubeidi returns to Jenin, he could end up sparking a large-scale armed confrontation between Palestinians and the Israeli military. If this does occur, then this is also terrible news for the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas. If Jenin turns into a warzone, then similar armed uprisings may be encouraged across the West Bank.

The joint list of Palestinian armed groups, headed by Hamas, inside of the besieged Gaza would also likely encourage events to escalate by attacking Israel also, while smaller Palestinian militias inside Lebanon may fire rockets. On Monday night, Israeli warplanes struck two military training sites inside Gaza's southern city of Khan Yunis, in what the IDF claimed was a response to incendiary balloons being sent over the separation fence between the two sides. 

Since the murder of Palestinian Authority (PA) critic Nizar Banat by PA forces in the West Bank, mass mobilisations have continued to take place throughout the occupied territory, with demonstrators calling on President Mahmoud Abbas to resign. The close relationship that has formed between the PA and Israel has led most Palestinians to see it as nothing more than a collaborator helping Israel's military to continue its illegal occupation.

Now that the six prisoners have escaped, all other Palestinian political parties, including Hamas, have a perfect opportunity to ignite a joint West Bank-Gaza armed resistance campaign. If Israel manages to find the escaped captives, its confrontation with them may backfire dramatically, for if the prisoners are killed then they will become martyrs and an inspiration for further armed attacks against Israeli forces. This armed campaign may eventually end up being the beginning of the end of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank if PA forces are to intervene, as the guns may then be turned on them.

What looks on the surface to have simply been a Hollywood-style prison break and an embarrassing failure of Israel's security establishment may lead to an explosion of violence inside the West Bank and a possible battle with the armed groups inside Gaza. All of this is terrible news for Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet, whose coalition government will likely collapse in the event of a repeat of May's 11-day war.

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https://twitter.com/i24NEWS_EN/status/1435985389576204295

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Palestinians holds up spoons – symbolizing the basic tools used by the escapees to dig an underground tunnel – during a demonstration in solidarity with prisoners in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 8 September.  (Ashraf Amra / APA images)

Israel seeks revenge after Palestinian Great Escape
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-seeks-revenge-after-palestinian-great-escape

Israeli authorities have grown increasingly frustrated, embarrassed and perplexed in the days since six Palestinians escaped from one of Israel's most fortified prisons.

Amid speculation that the men might be hiding out in the West Bank, or could have crossed the border to Jordan, Palestinians are praying for their safety and hailing them as heroes.

Their escape is a huge morale boost for Palestinians, as it once again shatters Israel's image of strength and invincibility in the face of an occupied people struggling for its freedom.

The seemingly impossible feat has generated comparisons to The Great Escape – the movie retelling the epic story of Allied prisoners of war who tunneled out of a heavily guarded Nazi POW camp during World War II.

From the bathroom of their cell in Gilboa prison in northern Israel, the jailed Palestinians dug a 20-meter underground tunnel that emerged just outside the prison walls under a watchtower.

The majority of the prisoners had been accused of involvement in planning or carrying out attacks against Israelis, and four of the six had been serving life sentences. Two had been awaiting trial.

Five of the men – Ayham Kamamji, 35, Yacoub Qadri, 49, Munadel Infiat, 26, Muhammad Arda, 39, Mahmoud Arda, 46 – are affiliated with the Palestinian resistance organization Islamic Jihad.

The sixth and the most well-known is Zakaria Zubeidi, 46, a former commander of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militia affiliated with Fatah.

The men likely spent months digging the tunnel.

Israel's domestic spying and torture agency Shin Bet, the military and the police launched a wide-scale manhunt, setting up nearly 200 checkpoints all over the occupied West Bank in search of the men.

Israeli police think it likely that the men split into smaller groups and some may have reached neighboring countries. The Shin Bet speculates the escape may have involved coordination outside the prison as well.

The men likely escaped around 1:30 am on Monday.

Suspicions arose in the early hours when a cab driver said he saw the men at a gas station near the prison and called the police at 1:49 am. The prison was reportedly notified at 2:14 am.

It was only at 3:29 in the morning that the Israel Prison Service reported three inmates missing, and it took another half hour before it became clear there were three others.

Those time gaps are also being investigated as part of the probe into the breach.

An official from the Israel Prison Service called it "a major security and intelligence failure."

The architectural blueprints of Gilboa prison, as well as other Israeli prisons, had reportedly been published online by an architecture firm involved in construction – though it is unclear whether the prisoners would have had any access to the plans.

Retaliatory measures
A wounded Goliath, Israel immediately began "a series of collective, punitive, retaliatory and arbitrary measures" against Palestinian prisoners en masse, according to prisoners rights group Addameer.

Prison authorities began transferring hundreds of prisoners in Gilboa to other locations for investigation and interrogations.

Prison authorities are also using a variety of tactics to retaliate, including withholding meals, denying prisoners certain rights they gained through protests and hunger strikes, conducting raids and searches of prison cells and scattering prisoners affiliated with Islamic Jihad across different rooms, sections and prisons.

Such Israeli raids, which at times are conducted by special units, are "extremely violent in nature" and constitute "collective punishment, torture and ill-treatment," Addameer said.

Palestinian prisoners declared a state of "general alarm and rebellion" on Wednesday in response to Israel's revenge measures since the escape.

Israeli prison authorities dramatically escalated their violence on Wednesday, sending in special units backed up by occupation soldiers and dogs.

Detainees' hands and feet were tied, as some were thrown out of their cells and assaulted. Local media circulated photos showing ransacked cells:

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"If the escalation continues at this rate, there will be a real war in prisons and detention centers," the Palestinian Authority's commission for prisoners said.
In protest of Israel's oppressive tactics, prisoners lit fires in their cells.

Katy Perry, the head of the Israel Prison Service, decided "that only one Islamic Jihad prisoner is placed in any given prison cell," the newspaper Haaretz reported.

But the movement and its detainees vowed immediate resistance. Some 150 prisoners affiliated with Islamic Jihad refused to be forcibly transferred out of Ofer military prison near Ramallah.

The strength of the response forced Israel to back off. Israeli officials reversed the decision, "fearing mass disturbance," according to Haaretz.

"They're just scared of them," one senior Israel Prison Service official told the newspaper.

Israel's violent reaction "stems from the military failure and the security downfall of the occupation government," the Palestinian Authority's commission for prisoners said.

The group added that Israel is "working to cover up its failure and defeat in front of the solid will of the Palestinian prisoners."

​​Israel is also taking out its frustration against the families of the escaped prisoners. Occupation forces have arrested multiple family members of those who had escaped.

Resistance
The prisoners ripping their freedom from the clutches of the occupier is Israel's latest humiliation in a series of events that Palestinians hailed as victories this year.

Starting with the deterrence established when Palestinian armed factions in Gaza resisted Israel's ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and bombing campaign in May, to the incident where a Palestinian shot back at an Israeli sniper through a small opening in the barrier between Gaza and Israel in August.

All Palestinians held by Israel as a consequence of resistance to Israel's violent occupation and colonialism should be considered political prisoners – even if Israel portrays them as criminals and "terrorists."

The British government also considered those it jailed during the armed struggle in Ireland's north to be "terrorists" and criminals, but ultimately recognized their political status when it agreed to free them as part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Most Palestinians are tried in Israel's military court, while Israeli settlers are subject to civilian courts – an aspect of Israel's apartheid system.

The military courts lack basic due process and have a near-100 percent conviction rate for Palestinians.

Just as the men's escape from the occupier's prison is a form of resistance, so too are the actions that place thousands of Palestinians inside those prisons in the first place.

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Two of the Captured Detainees Report Torture, one Hospitalized
https://imemc.org/article/two-of-the-captured-detainees-report-torture-one-hospitalized/

Lawyers for two of the Palestinian prisoners who managed to escape Israeli prison on September 6, on Wednesday, confirmed that the escapees have suffered torture at the hands of the Israeli forces, the Associated Press (AP) has revealed.

For the first time, since they were captured, on September 11, lawyers were permitted to interview two of the detainees.

Attorney with the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) Raslan Mahajna, met with political prisoner Mahmoud al-'Arda, one of the six Palestinians who escaped from Israeli prison, who informed him of the harsh details of interrogation and the systematic denial of basic human needs.

Israeli human rights lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, told AP that his client, Zakariyya Zobeidi, said that security forces handcuffed him, asked him his name, and when he stated "Zakariyya", they proceeded to brutally assault him, causing him two rib fractures and a fractured jaw.

Feldman added;

"They didn't have any intention to commit any kind of terrorist attack." 

On September 12, one day after his capture, the health condition of Zobeidi, 46, deteriorated, so he was transferred to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for medical treatment, according to Hasan Abed Rabbo, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Detainees Affairs Commission.