The inmates are believed to have moved through the space to reach the prison's outer wall, then dug a tunnel that emerged in the middle of a dirt road just outside. According to The Jerusalem Post they had used a rusty spoon that they hid behind a poster. An area in which the Israel Prisons Service does need to study and determine how best to address is in the way it responded - or failed to adequately respond - to warning signs that a prison break had occurred.The Palestinians are believed to have made their way out of the cell that they shared by digging a hole in the floor of their bathroom. These two failures are not new lessons to be learned, but known problems with known solutions, however difficult, that must be addressed. This jamming equipment was installed in the prison a year ago, but hasn’t been used, likely to avoid a strike by the prisoners, as has happened in the past when such systems have been introduced. But the Israel Prisons Service is acutely aware that cellphones are regularly smuggled into its facilities in a variety of ways - which have been used to coordinate attacks in the past - and it has advanced cellphone service blocking capabilities in many of its facilities, including Gilboa Prison.
Israeli security officials believe that the men relied on outside help for their escape, using contraband cellphones.
Prison officials have been aware of this structural problem in Gilboa Prison - that there are large gaps in the prison floors and walls that can be used for escape - since 2014, when the service foiled a nearly identical escape attempt by eight inmates, also members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The head of the Israel Prisons Service, Katy Perry, promised in a press conference that her organization would “study the event and learn lessons.”īut while heads will certainly roll for this dramatic prison break, which evoked scenes from classic prison movies like The Shawshank Redemption and The Great Escape, the lessons that will be learned from this event will be ones that the Israel Prisons Service should already have internalized.Ī hole used by six Palestinian prisoners to escape from the Gilboa prison in northern Israel, on September 6, 2021. The comment spoke both to the severity of the event and to the major intelligence failure that preceded the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which the country was caught off-guard by a surprise attack by Egyptian and Syrian forces.
While the prison break occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, a senior Israel Prisons Service official told the Haaretz newspaper that this escape was “Judgement Day for the organization,” a reference to Yom Kippur. Palestinian terror groups have gleefully commented on the prison break, calling it “an utter failure for the occupation army” and a “strong slap to the Israeli military and the whole Israeli system.” Yom Kippur before Rosh Hashanah Tensions were already high, with many clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the northern West Bank in recent weeks and ongoing violence along the Gaza border, including a deadly riot last month during which a Palestinian gunman opened fire at an Israeli border guard from point-blank range, killing him. Israeli security forces patrol along the security fence in the village of Muqeibila near the West Bank town of Jenin, on September 6, 2021, following the escape of six Palestinians from an Israeli prison.
The immediate concern in Israel is that the fugitives will attempt to carry out an attack, but there is also a worry that the longer the prisoners are on the run, the harder it will become to find them. The escape of six inmates from Gilboa Prison on Monday is primarily a major security risk, putting several hardened criminals, including a major terrorist leader, back onto the streets of Israel, the West Bank or Jordan, but it is also a deeply humiliating moment for the Israel Prisons Service.Īll of Israel’s security services were called in to assist with the manhunt: police established checkpoints throughout northern Israel, including near the Jordanian border, and sent additional officers to cities and towns in the area the Israel Defense Forces also set up roadblocks around the northern West Bank and dispatched reconnaissance aircraft to help gather intelligence and the Shin Bet security service is bringing to bear its technological capabilities and well-placed human intel sources.
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