JERUSALEM – Israeli prisons face rebellion as inmates associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad revolted and set fire to cells after the spectacular escape on Monday of six fellow prisoners detained in one of the prisons. Israel’s safest prisons.
A dozen cells at two prisons were set on fire and prisoners threatened to do more damage to guards after attacking a Gilboa prisoner with boiling water, according to prison authorities. Prisoners reportedly protested the decision to move them from their wings, one of the measures taken by the Israeli authorities after the shocking imprisonment of half a dozen men accused of terror crimes, who were released from prison high security of Gilboa. in Galilee with ease drawing.
“Morale is high among prisoners from Gilboa prison.”
Despite the more than 90 checkpoints set up by the police, which affected holiday traffic during the Jewish New Year, and the support of 14 army infantry companies and special units, there have been hardly any. sighting of the fugitives, Zakaria Zubeidi, Iham Kamamji, Monadal Infiat, Yakub Kadari and brothers Mahmoud and Mohammed Aradeh.
A shop owner in a village in northern Israel reported that Zubeidi, the best-known fugitive, broke into his shop and ordered bread and a walk on Monday morning. He was rejected and left.
Hours after the jail, prison commissioner Katy Perry ordered the inmates to be moved to ensure that there was only one Islamic Jihad prisoner in one prison cell at a time.
The six fugitives, five of whom are members of the Islamic Jihad, shared a single cell. Following Perry’s announcement, some 400 prisoners affiliated with Islamic Jihad were dispersed in Israel’s top security prisons.
Widespread riots broke out in several top-level security halls, with about a dozen cells burned.
For now, it looks like the jailers are backing down.
The Israeli Penitentiary Service (IPS) has decided not to continue transferring Palestinian Islamic Jihad prisoners to various Israeli and West Bank prisons after the prisoners threatened mass riots, including other arson attacks, if they were separated and transferred to other rooms. or prisons.
“Morale is high among prisoners from Gilboa prison,” a senior prison official told Walla News. “And we’re stretched to the end of our capabilities.”
The Israeli army was preparing for possible mass protests in the occupied West Bank and an increase in violence along the Gaza border, where there have been ongoing clashes for several weeks.
On Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that the rupture “could affect several areas,” adding that Israel “is ready for all scenarios.”
The Society of Palestinian Prisoners issued a press release announcing that “all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons would respond to” IPS punitive measures “with an” open confrontation “against prison authorities. Hamas, the Islamist militia that governs the Gaza Strip, warned Israel in a statement “against the continuation of these repressive and retaliatory measures against prisoners,” and added that only Israel would be responsible for the consequences.
“ The worst thing that has happened here in decades.”
In a Tuesday press conference, and in an ongoing social media campaign on Wednesday, Islamic Jihad called on Palestinians to confront the Israeli army “everywhere.”
The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another extremist group, declared that “our fighters are waiting, ready, and that there are all the options available to respond and defend our brave prisoners. “, if the damage occurs to them.
In the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah in the West Bank, several dozen people gathered on Wednesday night with sympathy for the fugitive prisoners, and Israeli and Palestinian authorities fear an escalation of violence similar to the eruption that took place. last May the ten-day war between Israel and Gaza.
Following the calls for action, Palestinian Jerelites clashed with police on Wednesday at the Damascus gate in the Old City, in scenes reminiscent of the riots that led to the battle. Radical factions hope to ignite the region in a sustained uprising similar to the first intifada, which erupted after a notorious rupture with Palestinian prisons in 1987.
Concerned that inmates may have received help from prison, Israeli police are questioning the guards about the Great Escape from Galilee. At least 14 IPS employees were questioned on Wednesday.
Deputy Commissioner for Retired Prison Service Makleb Tapash said in an interview with tabloid Yediot Ahronot that the jailbreak is “a shameful incident, the worst that has occurred here in decades.”