Nablus -

Before 1:30 in the morning of Monday (September 6), everything was going well in the eyes of the Israeli occupation authorities in Gilboa Prison. Fist of the occupier, and they had it.

The "miracle" - as many described it - began with a security hole in the toilet of the cell in which the six prisoners are located, from which they planned and prepared for the escape and carried it out with caution and great success, which it is hoped that it will continue, and continue a series of "serious security failures", as seen by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and unanimously agreed upon. Many Israeli media and politicians.

In order to complete the success of their escape, the prisoners must avoid the common axioms of disappearance, such as not contacting and communicating in any way with their families, or approaching open and dangerous security areas, because these are main reasons that can lead them to be trapped, in addition to not being present collectively.

The Palestinian security and military expert, Major General Wassef Erekat, says that whoever planned this operation - "which took place with distinction" - is able to plan to disappear as long as possible.

He adds that it is clear that the "prisoners of the Freedom Tunnel" - as the Palestinians called them via social media - have studied all previous similar operations, and avoided their downsides, "and will devise new means of disguise that the Israeli enemy does not know."


Expertise and popular protection

Erekat saw - in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net - that whoever surpasses the conditions of the complex escape from the "Iron Treasury" (Gilboa) prison, as Israel calls it, given the security precautions placed in it;

He is able to get away from the sights of Israel, which harnesses all its security and financial capabilities, and will use all its agents to reach them.

And "the prisoners' sense of high security they translated into reality from the moment they entered a narrow tunnel and exited from its narrowest opening, under the watchful eye of the military watchtower, and walked alone without drawing attention or leaving a trace, and changing their clothes with other ones they had previously prepared, as indicated by Israeli estimates. It led to the realization of the "miracle" and the successful implementation of all stages, and thus "they will succeed in the following," according to Erekat.

According to Erekat, these prisoners have sufficient experience to find means of disappearance, especially since Zakaria al-Zubaidi (the commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the Jenin camp, the military arm of Fatah movement) and they have an important public and military base.

What is required now - as the military expert says - is to provide Palestinian popular protection for them, and to be aware of avoiding intrusion and transferring rumors spread by Israel and its intelligence services that are waging a psychological war in order to gather information about their whereabouts.

With the first hours of the prisoners' escape, the Israeli media began publishing their analyzes, scenarios, and the places the fleeing prisoners were expected to reach, including countries outside Palestine.

Israeli police forces in the vicinity of Gilboa prison, where 6 Palestinian prisoners managed to escape at dawn on Monday (French)

avoid this

The Director of the Palestinian Center for Research and Strategic Studies, Muhammad al-Masri, agrees with Major General Erekat that the experience of these prisoners who spent many years in Israeli prisons and learned how to deal with the jailer and his internal and external tools;

enough to protect them.

But he told Al Jazeera Net that the success of their disappearance is also linked to several precautions that they should take into account, the most important of which is the realization that their lives and security are more important than communicating with their families, especially since they have no choice but freedom or martyrdom, and by moving away from their social circles they protect themselves, their families and their people.

Al-Masry stressed not to deal with technology tools;

Being the occupier far superior in this matter, living a primitive life and navigating by simple means, not trusting anyone.

And popularly, the Palestinians - according to Al-Masry - are required to stay away from harmful emotions despite the joy of victory, and the bragging that leads to dire consequences, such as novels such as “I met, saw, spoke and transferred”, to protect the prisoners from the “unsafe” environment filled with the intelligence of the occupation and its aides.

Al-Masry also believes that "the mere mention of the place to which one is expected to flee is harmful and dangerous."

Al-Masry was a former prisoner in the Ansar prison, which the occupation established in southern Lebanon in 1983, and witnessed the largest escape attempt for more than 100 prisoners, of whom more than 70 prisoners actually managed to escape.

Al-Masry said from his experience, "One of the tools to confront the occupation is to search for your freedom in your own ways and to protect yourself only by yourself."


For the second day in a row, social media activists continue to call for protection for prisoners and not to disclose any information, in addition to demanding that their photos not be published.

Safe Haven and Power Scenario

Birzeit University media professor Khaled Selim wrote, “They carved their own key for the “Al-Khazneh” (in reference to the name of Gilboa prison) and set out in their countries with two names. Laughing, they recount their story, and how they put dirt on the nose of their jailers - our jailers.

Others circulated excerpts from Al Jazeera's "Witness to the Age" program, in which Palestinian Abdel Hakim Hanini, who was released in the Wafaa Al-Ahrar (Shalit) deal in 2011, appears, recounting his personal account of prisoners digging an escape tunnel.

While others brought up clips from the series "The Spirit", which deals with the idea of ​​prisoners escaping from prison.

The Palestinian writer Zakaria Muhammad wrote on his page expected scenarios about the arrest or martyrdom of these prisoners or some of them, as happened before, and the impact of this on the possibility of a massive uprising.

But he said that the worst-case scenario is that the Palestinian Authority goes to arrest these prisoners, or helps to do so.

Al-Majd Al-Amni website of the Al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas) published a press release in which it called on citizens to encourage and praise the "prisoners of the Freedom Tunnel", without providing any information or analysis about them.

The statement called on the owners of shops in Palestine to change the direction of their cameras that reveal the roads, and called on the families to show solidarity with the families of the prisoners and confront the occupation if it tries to storm their homes.