Israel: two other Palestinian detainees, who had escaped, were captured

End of the run.

Israeli police announced on Saturday the arrest of two new Palestinian detainees who escaped earlier this week from a high-security prison in northern Israel.

"Two other prisoners were captured a short time ago (...) while they were hiding in a parking lot for trucks", said the police, increasing to four the number of detainees arrested out of the six who escaped last Monday from Gilbao (north) prison.

שוטרי משטרת ישראל לכדו ארבעה מהאסירים שנמלטו מכלא גלבוע: הבוקר נלכדו שניים מהאסירים הנמלטים בכפר אום אל-גנם, כשהם מסתתרים בחניון משאיות, ע"י צוות לוחמים משותף של השב"כ והימ"מ אתמול עצרו שוטרי משטרת ישראל שניים מהאסירים בהר הקפיצה בנצרת. pic.twitter.com/D3jvD1BP4O

- משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) September 11, 2021

The Israeli authorities arrested Friday evening Mahmoud Abdullah Ardah, 45 and imprisoned since 1996, and Yaqoub Qadri, 48, two members of the Islamic Jihad - a Palestinian armed Islamist group -, in the Arab Israeli locality of Nazareth, located about thirty kilometers from the prison.

This Saturday morning, it was Zakaria Al-Zoubeidi, the former head of the armed wing of the secular Fatah party in the Jenin camp and the best known of the six escapees, and Mahmoud Ardah who were found in the Arab village of Shibli Umm al-Ghanam, about ten kilometers east of Nazareth.

"The hunt continues"

"The two men were captured by a team comprising fighters from the special anti-terrorism unit of the police and members of the Shin Bet (the internal security service, editor's note) following intense searches by the district police north, the border police, special army units, the Shin Beth and the IPS (prison services), ”said the Israeli police.

VIDEO.

Israel: six Palestinian detainees escape high-security prison through tunnel

“All the forces have continued to operate intensely (…) collecting all the information until they are able to piece together the puzzle and reach the location of the two fugitives Zakaria Zabeidi and Mahmoud Ardah (…) the hunt for the other two fugitives continues, ”the police added.

The six Palestinian prisoners had escaped early last Monday, through a tunnel dug under a sink in a cell, to emerge from outside the prison through a hole in the ground, an operating procedure almost from a film by 'Hollywood.

Their spectacular escape from a high security prison made them "heroes" to many Palestinians and precipitated a manhunt in Israel but also in the occupied West Bank, where they are all from.