From smuggling a “saw” inside bread to the tunnels… Stories of the “Great Escape” from Israeli prisons

The story of the escape of 6 Palestinian prisoners from Gilboa prison or “Al-Khazna” high-security prison, which caused a violent shock to the security services in Israel, is a new episode in an extended series of stories of the great escape.

On the night of Sunday-Monday, 6 Palestinian prisoners managed to escape from one of the most secure and guarded prisons in Israel; So much so that the Israelis call it “Al-Khazneh”, a Gilboa prison in northern Israel, through a tunnel dug by the six detainees.

The official “Kan” channel quoted the Prison Authority as saying that 6 detainees dug a tunnel from Gilboa prison, and the Prison Authority said that this information is “preliminary, as the circumstances of the incident are under investigation.”

According to the Addameer Foundation for Prisoner Care and Palestinian Human Rights, Gilboa prison “is located in northern Palestine (Israel) and was established under the supervision of Irish experts and reopened in 2004 near Shata prison, in the Beisan area.”

The institution added: “The prison is of a very strict security nature, and is described as the most guarded prison, in which the occupation holds Palestinian prisoners, whom the occupation accuses of being responsible for carrying out operations inside the occupied territories of Palestine in 1948.”

How did the prisoners escape from the safe?

Commentators have described the escape of the six Palestinian detainees, through a tunnel they managed to dug over several months, from inside a cell to outside it, as quite similar to what happens in the movies. Gilboa Prison in Israel is described as “Al-Khazna Prison” because of the tight procedures in it, to prevent any attempt to escape from it.

Israeli security commentator Yossi Melman wrote in a tweet on Twitter: “As in the movies, this is not the first time, in July 1958 a violent revolution broke out by prisoners in the prison (then called Shata), 66 prisoners escaped, 11 and two guards were killed. Two others, all arrested. In 2014, security prisoners (members of Palestinian resistance movements) dug a tunnel, but the escape attempt was uncovered.

For its part, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot said: “A drama in one of the most fortified prisons in Israel: In the early morning, the Prison Authority discovered the prisoners’ disappearance a few hours after they managed to escape, through a tunnel dug in the prison,” according to a report by Anadolu Agency.

For its part, the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, said: “Prison officials believe that the six escaped through a tunnel that reaches outside the prison walls, which they managed to dug during the past few months.”

She added, “The Shin Bet security service reported that the prisoners coordinated with people outside the prison using a smuggled mobile phone, and they had an escape car waiting for them.”

According to the newspaper, “They were first noticed by local farmers who reported them to the police, after they thought they were thieves.” She said: “It was discovered that the six prisoners had escaped at about four o’clock in the morning, during the (morning) counting process.” It quoted an official in the Israeli Prisons Service, who described the escape as a “major security and intelligence failure.”

As for the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said: “The drama began in the security prison, which was established in the wake of the (second) intifada in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and is considered one of the best fortified prisons in the country, around 4:00 in the morning, but the investigations Initially, the escape occurred at 01:30.

She added: “It is known that there are many gaps in the fence line separating Israel and the Palestinian territories in the Gilboa area, through which many people cross without permits.” The newspaper pointed out that large forces were deployed near the separation wall around the Jenin area, in the northern West Bank, from which the detainees are from.

The Israeli newspaper, Maariv, said that the Israeli Prison Authority decided to distribute the remaining detainees in the prison, estimated at about 400, to other prisons. She added, “Hundreds of Border Police officers were deployed to the scene.”

Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Omer Bar-Lev, said: “In the morning I was informed of the escape from Gilboa prison, and the investigation is currently underway by the Commissioner of Prisons.”

Who are the six prisoners who carried out the escape?

The six prisoners who escaped from Al-Khazna belong to the Jenin governorate in the northern West Bank, and most of them are serving life sentences (for life). They are Zakaria Al-Zubaidi (45 years old), the former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Born in Jenin camp. He was elected as a member of the Revolutionary Council of Fatah Movement in 2006, and was arrested from the city of Ramallah in the West Bank on February 27, 2019.

Munadil Yaqoub Abdul-Jabbar Nafe’at (32 years old), born in the town of Ya’bad, Jenin district, was arrested in 2006 and released in 2015, then re-arrested in 2016 and then in 2020. He is accused of belonging to Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of Islamic Jihad and participating in resistance operations against the occupation forces. He has not yet been sentenced.

The third is Yaqoub Mahmoud Ahmed Qadri (39 years old), born in the village of Bir al-Basha, Jenin district. In 2000, he was chased by the occupation, and he participated in the battle to defend Jenin camp in 2002. He was arrested on October 18, 2003, and sentenced to life imprisonment twice and 35 years in 2004. In 2014, he and a group of prisoners tried to escape from Shata prison through a tunnel, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

As for Ayham Fuad Nayef Kamamji (35 years), he was born in the village of Kafr Dan from Jenin. The occupation began chasing him in May 2003, and the occupation forces arrested him on July 4, 2006, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment twice.

Mahmoud Abdullah Ali Ardah (46 years old), was born in the town of Arrabeh, Jenin District. He was arrested for the first time in 1992 and released in 1996, then arrested again in the same year on September 21, 1996. Sentenced to life imprisonment in addition to fifteen years, on charges of belonging to the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, and participating in resistance operations.

Muhammad Qasim Ahmad Ardah (39 years), was born in Arraba, Jenin District. He was arrested in an Israeli ambush on January 7, 2002, then released in mid-March 2002, and on May 16, 2002, he was besieged and arrested in Ramallah. He was sentenced to three life sentences and 20 years.

The Great Escape from Israeli Prisons..Stories and Heroes

The stories of the attempts of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are closely related to the history of the Palestinian struggle itself and represent a major area in the ongoing battle to liberate Palestine from the grip of the occupation. This was expressed by one of the most famous Palestinians in the field of escaping from Israeli prisons, Hamza Younis.

Younis managed to escape many times from the Israeli occupation detention centers, and in his book about escaping from Ramle prison, Younis explained why the escape was such an obsession, saying that for him “it was a principled position that he must take, otherwise it may end. Can I defeat Israel alone? I am not armed, not even trained in weapons, so can I achieve a victory over the arsenal of weapons, aircraft, the state of the army, the police and security, and the dogs of trace?”

One of the prominent stories in this resistance path is the “Great Escape” operation from Gaza prison in 1987, during which the prisoner Mosbah al-Suri was able to cut the bars of the sink window in the central prison, using a “half an iron saw” that one of his friends smuggled to him in a “Fino loaf” during the visit. With the help of two detainees, Abd al-Salam Abu al-Sarhad and Imad al-Din Awad Shehadeh, they did not escape with him because they were not serving a life sentence like him, and their prison term was about to end.

But Al-Suri did not escape from prison alone, but with 5 prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, bringing the number to six, in one of the most prominent escape operations that were carried out over weeks in difficult circumstances, culminating in the successful escape through the window, whose bars took a period ranging from 3 and 7 days (according to multiple accounts).

According to the account of the former prisoner, Abu al-Sarhad – one of the six – in an interview with the military media of the Al-Quds Brigades, they were working – cutting window bars – in the bathroom for a short period of 10-13 minutes each time, trying not to draw the attention of the rest of the prisoners. On the night of Sunday, May 17, 1987, they were able to completely cut the bars of the window, and when the cutting process was completed, Al-Sawry told his five fellow prisoners on high sentences of his intention to escape to join him in this.

On that night, the Jews were celebrating one of their feasts, and the prison guards were busy celebrating and dancing. According to Abu Al-Sarhad’s narration, at one o’clock in the afternoon there was calm in the prison, and the loud sounds of the guards’ celebrations fell silent, to start a different “party” among the prisoners. The zero hour approached, and the six prisoners began preparing for their “big” escape.

The prisoners came out of the window ready to escape, after they had put pillows in their place on the sleeping places, to make the jailer delusional that they were sleeping. Saleh Ashtiwi was the first to flee, then Misbah al-Suri, then Sami al-Sheikh Khalil, followed by Muhammad al-Jamal, then Imad al-Saftawi, and then Khaled Saleh.

A layer of fog had settled that night and provided a cover for the six prisoners who climbed on the roof of the kitchen before they moved to the Intelligence and Military Police prison, all the way to the eastern area of ​​the prison building, and there the Kenya trees helped them cross the prison wall. Beyond the wall and barbed wire. As for the prison administration, the six prisoners escaped only after 4 hours had passed, at six in the morning, during the morning count of prisoners.

And between Hamza Yunis’ repeated escape and the great escape from the central Gaza prison and even the great escape from the highly secured Gilboa prison, there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of stories of Palestinian prisoners escaping from the Israeli occupation prisons and prisons, in an embodiment of what the Palestinian resistance movements have always expressed that “the prisoners “They are the first line of resistance against the occupation.

This was expressed by Husam Badran, a member of the Hamas political bureau, on Monday, September 6, describing the escape of six Palestinian detainees from Gilboa prison as a victory for the resistance approach in Palestine, considering that the prisoners prove that they are in the “trench of confrontation” against the Israeli army.

Badran told the Russian news agency Sputnik: “Six heroes who were not defeated by the long years of imprisonment are drawing the way for us again, and confirming the correctness of the resistance approach,” adding: “You will not find a loyal Palestinian today unless he is full of joy, happiness and hope. Today there is an opportunity to bring about a qualitative leap in the work of the resistance in the West Bank, which is something that requires the effort of everyone without exception.”