Search continues for terrorists who escaped from jail in Israel: they arrested their loved ones

The IDF has detained in the West Bank at least five relatives of Palestinian terrorists who escaped from a prison in Israel earlier this week and have yet to be arrested.

Israeli forces are leading a Massive tracking since the escape last Monday from a high security prison in the north of the country and through a tunnel dug under a sink, six Palestinian members of armed groups.

were deployed surveillance drones and roadblocks have been set up, in particular in the West Bank and around the enclave of the Gaza Strip to try to find the prisoners, some of them sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in the terrorist attacks against Israel.

Two brothers from Mahmoud Arda, pointed out by local media as the architect of the operation, were arrested by the Israeli army, according to a statement from the Palestinian Prisoners Club. A cousin of Ardá also fled. His brother was arrested, as well as doctor Nidal Ardá, a relative of them, added the association.

The father of Egg Infeiat, another fugitive member of the Islamic Jihad armed group, was also arrested, according to the source.

Asked by AFP, the Israeli army, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, confirmed that “there were several arrests during the night”, declining to provide further details..

The six fugitives, all sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism and considered very dangerous by Israel, escaped this northeastern Israeli prison through a hole in the bathroom of the cell they shared, which led them through the prison drains to an exit shaft just below a watchtower, so they didn’t even have to dig the tunnel for months.

According to police reports in Hebrew media, the guards fell asleep, a last stroke of luck that allowed the men to run through a field to a vehicle in which they had more than three hours to flee until the prison found out, at around 4 a.m. local time on Monday (1 a.m. GMT) they were not in their cell.

Security cameras captured in real time how the six prisoners exited the tunnel, but apparently there were no guards monitoring the live surveillance videos, Israel Public Radio notes. can.

The leader of the escape is the well-known prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi, a former commander in the West Bank city of Jenin of Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who played a key role during the Second Intifada and was serving time for several deadly attacks, including an attack on the Likud siege in 2002 which killed six people.

Israeli justice issued an order prohibiting giving details of the investigationWhile the local press is trying to lift the veil that covers this delicate affair, since the authorities fear, among other things, that the fleeing Palestinians will carry out attacks.

“It is the right of any prisoner to seek a way to regain his freedom,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamad Shtayyé said on Tuesday, saying he was “happy” at the escape.

In the Gaza Strip and in Jenin, a city in the north of the West Bank, where some of the fugitives come from, many people took to the streets on Monday to celebrate the escape of these prisoners, who have become “heroes”, but also in the most wanted men of Israel.

The theft could be aimed at perpetrating another attack, or other Palestinians emboldened by their exploit could launch attacks to distract the agents in pursuit of them.

(With information from AFP)

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