"We turned reality into an attraction": being the terrorist Zakaria Zabeidi for an hour

While the entire country was chasing the five terrorists who escaped from Gilboa prison, two young men had an idea.

For 5 months, the two conducted an in-depth investigation about the escape, filmed inside and outside the prison - and finally built an escape room in Ashkelon that simulates the affair that happened last year.

Will you manage to escape from prison?

Yanir Yagna

12/08/2022

Friday, August 12, 2022, 7:01 p.m. Updated: 7:02 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

In the video: an escape room based on the escape of security prisoners from Gilboa prison (photo: Avi Rokah, editing: Dafi Mekel)

A public telephone booth, a small iron stool, coffee cups and furniture bought in Hebron - only the views of the Mediterranean Sea at the entrance to the "Gilboa Prison Escape" compound betray the fact that we are not in prison in the north of the country, but in Ashkelon.

For an hour, the players try to escape from the prison, almost a year after the case of the escape of the security prisoners that shocked the country.

More in Walla!

• Following the escape of the prisoners from Gilboa prison: a unit was established to locate tunnels in prison facilities

• 5 more years in prison for terrorists who escaped from Gilboa prison: "They paralyzed part of the country"

• The activities that will arrange your summer with the children for 10 shekels!

The image of Zabeidi in the escape room in Ashkelon (Photo: Avi Rokah)

The founders of the complex, Rotem and Shiraz, worked for about five months on the complex.

They conducted an in-depth investigation of the prison cells, documented Gilboa prison from the beds to the vehicles parked outside, filmed in a Druze village in the north, brought iron beds from a military base and copied the identity cards of the terrorists - all to try to simulate as much as possible the feeling there.

In the southern coastal city, the escape room overlooking the sea is already being called "Ashkelon's hit", and is frequented by teenagers, families and the elderly.

More in Walla!

Commander of Gilboa prison on the escape of the prisoners: "Use Styrofoam instead of concrete to save costs"

To the full article

Puzzles and obstacles.

The escape room in Ashkelon (Photo: Avi Rokah)

The idea came to the minds of the founders even before the last terrorist who escaped was caught.

"Five days after the escape, the idea came to me, we waited for everyone to be caught," recalled Rotem, then a police officer in the reserves. "If a disaster had happened, God forbid, I would not have opened the escape room," he emphasized.

On the same day that all the prisoners were caught, Rotem had already signed on a contract and received ownership of the building, where the escape room was opened. "The Ashkelonites were looking for something unique and new, and everyone is enthusiastic, mainly because of the name - people are intrigued and want to come," testified Rotem. "We took the whole story and passed it through the escape room, we took the reality and turned her to the attraction."

"We took the whole story and put it through the escape room" (Photo: Avi Rokah)

Most players manage to escape in close to an hour.

The escape room in Ashkelon (Photo: Avi Rokah)

The name of the terrorist Zakaria Zabeidi resonates in the escape complex, which consists of several rooms, a small tunnel and an escape vehicle.

To break the locks you have to answer riddles and pass many obstacles, challenging even those who are familiar with the story of the escape.

The record time is just over half an hour, while most players manage to escape outside the prison walls in close to an hour.

• news

• News in Israel

• Events in Israel

Tags

• Gilboa prison

• Ashkelon

• escape rooms