PLO threatens a “real explosion within the prisons and outside of them” if anything bad happens to 6 escaped terrorist prisoners
Text posted on the Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs
Posted text: “The [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs holds the occupation fully responsible for the lives of the prisoners of Gilboa Prison
Sept. 6, 2021
The Commission of Prisoners and Released Prisoners’ Affairs asked the legal and humanitarian institutions, and particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross, to immediately go to the Gilboa Prison to reveal the fate of more than 400 prisoners who were transferred to unknown locations after six prisoners succeeded in digging a tunnel and escaping from the prison (refers to prison escape on Sept. 6, 2021 by 6 prisoners including Zakariya Zubeidi; see note below -Ed.)…
The Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs added: ‘We also hold the occupation government fully responsible for the lives of the six prisoners, as the attempt to search for them and reach them is based on criminal and systematic foundations, and harming their lives – if they find them – is liable to lead to a real explosion within the prisons and outside of them. The international community’s institutions must warn Israel and its army against the danger of doing this.’
The commission emphasized that the escape stems from the Israeli tyranny that is being directed against our male and female prisoners in the occupation prisons, whose lives are a target for attack and who are being subjected to attacks, provocations, and robbery. Medical and humanitarian crimes are also being committed against them around the clock (sic., see note below regarding PA libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners)…
The commission wishes health and security to the prisoners who succeeded in escaping, and calls on the international community to bear its responsibility to protect them if they are found.”
2021 Gilboa Prison escape – 6 Palestinian terrorist prisoners escaped from Israel's Gilboa Prison on Sept. 6, 2021, by widening the hole of the shower drainpipe in the floor of their cell. One terrorist is from Fatah - Zakariya Zubeidi, and the other five are from Islamic Jihad - Ayham Kamamji, Muhammad Ardah, Mahmoud Ardah, Yaqub Qaderi, and Munadil Nafiyat. Four of the terrorists were recaptured after five days: Zubeidi, Ardah, Ardah, and Qaderi. Kamamji and Nafiyat were arrested in Jenin on Sept. 18, 2021 along with two accomplices. Zubeidi was head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) in the Jenin area during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005), when he oversaw numerous lethal attacks, and he also carried out shooting attacks in 2018-2019. Kamamji participated in the murder of 18-year-old Eliyahu Asheri on June 25, 2006, and planned to blow up a bus using an exploding car. Muhammad Ardah participated in initiating and executing a suicide bombing on bus no. 823 on Nov. 29, 2001, in which 3 people were murdered and many others were wounded. Mahmoud Ardah was involved in numerous attacks; the website of Islamic Jihad’s military wing defined him as the "commander" of the prison escape. Qaderi committed a shooting attack on Sept. 18, 2002 with an accomplice in which Israeli Yosef Ajami was murdered and a foreign worker was wounded. Nafiyat was being held in administrative detention.
Zakariya Zubeidi - Palestinian terrorist and head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) in the Jenin area during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005), when he oversaw numerous lethal attacks. Zubeidi was taken off Israel's wanted list in 2007 on condition that he refrain from terror as part of a deal with the PA; he was subsequently given a position in the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs and made a Fatah Revolutionary Council member. Zubeidi was arrested by Israel on Feb. 27, 2019, for breaching the deal by committing several shooting attacks with an accomplice - East Jerusalem lawyer Tareq Barghut who worked in the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs - near Beit El north of Ramallah on Nov. 7, 2018 and Jan. 5, 2019, and north of Jerusalem in late 2018; Zubeidi used a car issued to him by the PA in the attacks. Israel has put Zubeidi on trial for all of his past terror activity. Zubeidi escaped from Israel’s Gilboa Prison on Sept. 6, 2021, together with 5 Islamic Jihad terrorist prisoners who shared a cell with him, by digging a tunnel out through the floor with a spoon.
Libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners - The PA claims that Israel abuses Palestinian prisoners through medical neglect, medical experiments, and by intentionally infecting them with diseases. However, the International Red Cross regularly visits these prisoners and has not documented or accused Israel of any of these claims. Likewise, lists of demands occasionally issued by the prisoners during hunger strikes—such as during one in 2011—include no demands relating to these claims. PMW has documented prisoners talking about how they "lack nothing" in the prisons and that "the worst thing about Israeli prison" is riding in a prison vehicle that has no padding on the seat. When PMW contacted the Israeli Ministry of Health in 2007 regarding PA claims of medical experiments on prisoners, the ministry responded: "Clinical testing on prisoners in prison was never approved, never performed, and is most certainly not taking place at present."