For more than a week, Israel and the Palestinian territories have been hit by a jailbreak initially, albeit ridiculously, compared to Andy Dufresne’s meticulous and fictitious escape from Shawshank State Prison.
In contrast to Dufresne’s startling escape, the Israeli Prison Service opened the cell door and led Fatah terrorism chief Zakaria Zubeidi and his five Islamic Jihad cellmates to the release from Gilboa’s “high security” prison.
As far as we know, the five members of the Islamic Jihad were in the same cell from which several of them had tried to explode in 2014. Fatah rival Zubeidi obtained permission to enter shortly before the escape. . Their journey through the cell sink area seven years ago had materialized, but not through the area under the shower they crossed on this occasion. From there, they were able to crawl to the main walls of the prison through a cavity under the ground and then dig up and out through a small hole in the dirt that was there. just outside the walls.
It is helpful that Gilboa’s architectural design plans be available online. More usefully still, the watchtower that was immediately above its rupture hole had no staff, apparently for budgetary reasons. The guard of an adjacent tower was asleep. Awakened by unusual noises, she apparently looked around in the dark, saw nothing, and nodded again.
Eyewitnesses saw the fugitives almost immediately, with a taxi driver quickly calling local police in a detailed report of suspicious figures in the area. However, when police tried to alert the prison, they found that the Prison Service had changed their phone numbers and did not have new ones. When police officers had driven him to jail, crucial minutes had passed. Even then, the guards took a little longer to confirm that someone was missing; when they did, the fugitives had already passed.
In fictional Shawshank, the stoic protagonist of Tim Robbins, who protested his innocence, was in prison for the murder of his wife and lover. Back in the real world, Zubeidi was imprisoned because he was a former commander of the Al-Aqsa brigades, mass killers of Fatah; four of the other five were serving life sentences for murder or attempted murder because of Islamic Jihad, which seeks the destruction of Israel. Clearly, these men are nothing short of Hollywood heroes.
The six Palestinian security prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison on Monday, September 6, 2021. Clockwise from the top left: Yaqoub Qadiri, Mohammed al-Arida, Mahmoud al-Arida, Iham Kamamji, Zakaria Zubeidi and Munadil Nafiyat (Screenshot: Palestinian prisoners) ‘Media Office’
Except for many Palestinians, clearly they are. His escape was widely celebrated in Gaza, where the Islamist group Hamas largely governs and tolerates the smallest Islamic Jihad, and in much of the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority met, as so often, in various conflicting directions, engaged in security cooperation with Israel, fearful of the impetus of its Islamist rivals, and aware that the “street” was enchanted with the humiliation of Israel by the fugitives. “It is the right of prisoners to seek freedom, as is our people. We must make every effort to release the prisoners. I greet them and hope that these prisons will one day disappear and never return, “said AP Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh the day after the outbreak.
As of this writing, four of the six have been recovered. Much was done in the early hours and days after the escape of another prison service: no system was designed to stop calls from mobile phones that are usually smuggled to security guards; apparently, the prison chiefs were deterred from doing so for fears that would provoke unrest and worse among the inmates. The assumption was that the fugitives had carefully planned their strategy once out of prison, coordinating with outside accomplices, possibly including Arab Israelis, to ensure a smooth and complete escape, and from there photos of victory from a safe place out of the easy reach of Israel. psychological impetus to the forces of terrorism.
In this photo provided by Israeli police, Zakaria Zubeidi, on the left, and Mohammed al-Arida, two of the six Palestinian security prisoners who came out of Gilboa prison, have their eyes bandaged and handcuffed after being captured in the Arab city of Umm al-Ghanam, northern Israel, Saturday, September 11, 2021. (Israeli police via AP)
In fact, according to what is being leaked from Shin Bet’s interrogations at four o’clock, they had intended to go to the Jenin refugee camp area: the training and expedition center for the suicide bombing. Second Intifada and a virtual no-go zone for IDF and AP forces, but I had no accomplices waiting to help them get there. Seeking help from local Arab residents, they were turned down. In fact, other locals helped arrest him by reporting suspicious sightings.
The scene of a stabbing attack on Jerusalem Central Bus Station on September 13, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
With the last two fugitives still on the run and possibly arriving in Jenin, the saga is not over yet. It has already caused riots and fires in several prisons, caused several days of clashes in the West Bank that spread to East Jerusalem and is probably a central factor in a wave of rockets from Gaza. A terrorist attack took place near Jerusalem’s central bus station on Monday and reports of a major attack were thwarted, and Israeli security forces reported a number of new terrorist threats and preparations for a new escalation of violence.
If one or both fugitives reach Jenin, the terrorists could have their image of victory, and the IDF will be extremely cautious to venture into the camp in what would be a very complex operation to take them out without killing them and provoking them. an important climb.
Free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (second from right) walks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (second from left), Defense Minister Ehud Barak (left) and Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz (right), Tel Nof Air Base, Southern Israel, October 18, 2011. (Ariel Hermoni / Ministry of Defense / Flash90)
Praising the fugitives and boasting of their own capabilities, Hamas has assured the fugitives and their supporters that even if they are all trapped, they will be able to secure their freedom in a subsequent prisoner exchange. This confidence stems in part from the “exchange” of Shalit, in which Hamas secured the release of more than 1,000 prisoners from Israeli prisons, 280 of whom were serving their lives, in exchange for the release of IDF soldier Gilad. Shalit, who had been captured within his army. at the base and dragged into Gaza in a cross-border raid in 2006. This agreement greatly encouraged and empowered Hamas, helping to consolidate its presence in Gaza and marginalizing the PA.
The capture of Shalit was a major tactical failure on the part of Israel that led to a strategic success for the terrorist forces. It is to be hoped that the jailbreak of Gilboa prison, with the farce pranks that facilitated it, will not prove to be another example of this kind.
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** An earlier version of this editor’s note was sent Monday to ToI’s weekly update email to members of the Times of Israel community. To receive these notes from the publisher as they are published, join the ToI community here.