Israel: six Palestinians escaped again behind bars

Nearly two weeks after their spectacular escape from a high-security prison in Israel, all six Palestinian fugitives found themselves behind bars again on Sunday following the capture of the last two escapees in the occupied West Bank.

Read alsoIsrael: after the incredible escape of six Palestinians, the city of Jenin is jubilant

On September 6, the six Palestinians imprisoned for anti-Israel violence fled Gilboa prison in northern Israel, via a tunnel dug under a sink and leading outside the penitentiary.

Described as “heroes” on the Palestinian side, they had become Israel's most wanted men, which deployed military reinforcements and drones to find them.

A few days after this "Great Escape" as described in the Palestinian press, Israeli forces captured four of the fugitives last weekend in the Nazareth area in northern Israel.

Among them, Mahmoud Ardah, of the armed Islamic Jihad movement imprisoned since 1996 and considered to be the mastermind of the operation, and Zakaria al-Zoubeidi, a former local leader of the armed wing of the Fatah party of the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.

Before dawn on Sunday, the army arrested the last two fugitives, Ayham Kamamji and Mounadel Infeiat, members of the Islamic Jihad, in a joint operation with special anti-terrorism units in Jenin, in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel. .

They

"are currently being questioned,"

the army said.

Originally from Kafr Dan near Jenin, Ayham Kamamji was arrested in 2006 and sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli settler.

Mounadel Infeiat was awaiting his conviction after having been imprisoned in the past for his activities in Islamic Jihad.

Taleb Abo Jaafar, owner of the house in which the two fugitives were found, said he was surprised to find his house cordoned off in the middle of the night.

"There was shooting around the house (...) I opened the door and I looked in the street, the (security) forces were outside and told me to come back"

, he said. he told AFP.

"Without resistance"

"The security forces surrounded the building that housed the terrorists who surrendered without resistance and without weapons,"

said the army, adding that

"two men who had helped them (had) also been arrested."

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett praised the security forces on Twitter for

"this impressive, smart and swift operation

.

"

The Nazareth court also extended the detention of the first four prisoners by ten days on Sunday, according to a police statement.

It is not yet clear what prison the six Palestinians would be held in.

These prisoners had started in December 2020 to dig their tunnel in Gilboa prison, according to lawyers for the escapees.

“Mahmoud (Ardah) told me that he started digging (the tunnel) in December.

This is what he also told Israeli investigators, ”

his lawyer, Raslan Mahajana, told AFP after visiting him in detention on Wednesday.

"Spoon of freedom"

The prisoners used spoons, plates and even the handle of a kettle to dig their tunnel, added Mahajana, presenting Mahmoud Ardah as the architect of this operation.

On social networks, the spoon has established itself as the new symbol of

"liberation"

for the Palestinians, who took a picture of themselves with the utensil in hand in front of Palestinian flags.

This phenomenon has spread outside the Palestinian territories, where the object is brandished in demonstrations in support of the many prisoners held in Israel.

In Kuwait, an artist carved a fist that closes on the utensil, a work entitled “Spoon of Freedom”.

After this escape, an internal security investigation was opened at Gilboa prison.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in power in the Gaza Strip has claimed that

"the arrest of the two (last) prisoners will not cover the scale of the victory which has made the enemy in his natural place of laughable puppet

", according to a press release. Islamic Jihad told him that

“the fight against the enemy will continue”

.