Palestinian Prisoners Turned Fortified Gilboa Prison into Flimsy Walls

Gaza, MINA – Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Monday, the high-security Gilboa prison, which is located on the city of Bisan, northern occupied Palestine, six Palestinian prisoners managed to escape through a tunnel before Israeli security devices discovered it.

According to the website, in 2014, an incident similar to the one that occurred today took place, but the Prison Authority discovered the escape of a number of prisoners, in which they dug a tunnel inside the bathroom of a cell containing eight prisoners of Islamic Jihad, which is the same method the prisoners followed yesterday, MINA’s Contributor in Gaza reported.

The report indicated that Gilboa Prison was opened in 2004 as a solution for the number of Palestinian prisoners during the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, and it was classified as the highest security among all prisons.

In addition, Gilboa shelters the most important Palestinian prisoners, especially the leaders among them.

Each cell inside the prison weighs 66 tons of poured concrete, which is equivalent to 3 times the weight of the cell in ordinary prisons. There are also different procedures below each one to prevent digging branching tunnels.

The cells are also separated to make it difficult for the prisoners to know their whereabouts, but they are given a two-hour walk in the prison courtyard.

Gilboa prison contains 72 cameras, monitoring every step of the prisoners. The precautionary measures of the Prisons Department require that no ward is opened except by its guard. Each ward has 15 cells, and each cell contains 8 prisoners.

In a related context, the commander of the so-called northern region for the occupation prisons, Arik Yaqoub, claimed on Monday, the Palestinian prisoners who escaped from Gilboa prison did not dug any tunnels inside the cell they were in.

He said that the prisoners took advantage of a hole in the prison building and they used that hole under the ground and took advantage of it to get outside, and they also benefited from the space inside the cell and worked freely.

He indicated that investigations are still underway to find out all the circumstances, stressing that there is a great failure from the “Israeli” security to prevent such an operation.

According to investigations, after three o’clock in the morning, the Prison Authority began activating the state of emergency and counting the number of prisoners, before the hole was discovered in the cell from which the prisoners escaped.

“Israeli” sources said that the prisoners have already entered Jenin, where it was decided to reinforce the “Israeli” military forces in order to continue to pursue them inside the West Bank. (L-K-G/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)