Status: 11.09.2021 12:55 a.m.
Four days ago, six Palestinian militants had spectacularly escaped from an Israeli maximum security prison. Now the police have caught two of them.
A few days after six Palestinian militants escaped from an Israeli maximum security prison, the Israeli army captured and arrested two of the Palestinians who had fled. A civilian gave the clue about two suspicious people. The police did not identify the two men. The newspaper “Haaretz” reported on its website that they were two members of the Islamic Jihad, Mahmud Aradah and Jakub Kadari, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Palestinians fled the maximum security prison Gilboa in northern Israel through a tunnel on Monday morning. Since then, there has been a large manhunt in Israel and the West Bank. The Israeli army is intensively looking for the escaped prisoners, including using drones. ´
Army “prepared for any development”
While visiting a road checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel did not want to escalate tensions with the Palestinians over the incident. “Of the millions who live here, it’s about six people,” he said. But the army is “prepared for any development”.
The security situation in Israel is extremely tense. In the Palestinian Territories, many people cheered the prison breakout, and some riots had broken out.
A Palestinian prisoners’ agency called on inmates to oppose forced transfer by setting fires in their cells. There were fires in several prisons on Wednesday. On Friday, Israeli police fatally injured a Palestinian who was believed to have tried to attack them with a knife. A spokesman for the Hadassa Medical Center in Jerusalem confirmed the death of the man, a 50-year-old doctor who lived in Jerusalem. The Israeli army arrested several people close to the detainees.