Israel captured four of six Palestinian terrorists who escaped from high-security prison

The Israeli police have already arrested, in the north of the country, four of six Palestinians who escaped earlier this week from Gilboa high security prison.

Since their escape on Monday through a tunnel dug under a sink, the Israeli authorities have been looking for them in Israel and the West Bank, where the fugitives are from and where the army has deployed reinforcements.

It was believed that they may have left the country, crossing the Jordanian border, but four of the fugitives they were arrested in northern Israel, about 30 kilometers from the prison.

Late Friday, police announced the arrest in Nazareth, the main Arab city in northern Israel, two members of the Islamic Jihad armed group: Yaqub Qadri, 48, and Mahmud Ardah, 45.

According to the local press, Ardah, who was serving a life sentence, was the main instigator of the escape.

“The police discovered them and chased them by helicopter”, police said about the two fugitives. “They were held without resistance in southern Nazareth.

According to Israeli media, the police received an alert from residents of this city who warned of the presence of two men looking for food in the garbage.

In the family home near the West Bank town of Jenin, a brother of Mahmud Ardah told AFP that despite the “sadness” of his relatives after his capture, they were “happy that Mahmud had managed to scare the people away. prisoners and release them for a few days.

“Our fear is that they will torture him, place him in isolation and forbid him to receive visitors or speak on the phone,” he added.

“State of emergency”

In the early hours of Saturday, Israeli police announced the arrest of two other escapees who were “hiding in a truck parking lot.”

It is Zakaria al Zubeidi, a well-known former leader of the armed wing of the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abas, and Mohammad Ardah, a member of Islamic Jihad.

The arrests took place in the Arab town of Shibli Umm al Ghanam, about ten kilometers east of Nazareth.

Shortly after the announcement of the capture, quickly picked up by all Israeli media, the military reported the launch of a rocket from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, which was intercepted by its defensive shield.

In retaliation, the army carried out night air raids on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave controlled by the Islamists of Hamas but from which the Islamic Jihad also operates.

On Saturday evening, a new rocket – also intercepted – was launched from Gaza into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in a statement praised the work of the security forces after the arrest of the four fugitives, and stressed that “the state of maximum alert must continue until the capture” of the two. others.

It is two members of Islamic Jihad, native of Jenin: Ayham Kamamji, 35, sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli settler; and Munadel Infeiat, 26 years old.

One of them probably went to the West Bank, Homeland Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev told Channel 12.

“Declaration of war”

For its part, Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the arrest of the fugitives “will not erase” their “heroic” flight. And added that Any attempt by the Israeli authorities to “take revenge” on these prisoners will be understood as a “declaration of war”.

The armed wing of Hamas said that “any prisoner exchange deal should include the release of [cuatro] captured heroes ”.

Israel wants to repatriate the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014 in Gaza and two civilians held in the enclave.

By Delphine Matthieussent (AFP)

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