Today, Wednesday, some details of what the Palestinian prisoners who escaped from Gilboa prison experienced and the circumstances of the re-arrest of 4 of them revealed.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization's Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners Affairs said in a statement that attorney Avigdor Feldman was able this afternoon to "visit the prisoner commander Zakaria Al-Zubaidi in Al-Jalama detention center."

She added, "It was found that the prisoner Al-Zubaidi was beaten and abused during the process of his arrest with the prisoner Muhammad Ardah, which led to him having a broken jaw and two broken ribs," and "he was transferred to an Israeli hospital and given painkillers only after the arrest."

Feldman quoted Al-Zubaidi, 45, who has been detained since 2019 as saying that "during the four days in which they were liberated, we did not ask for help from anyone, out of concern for our people inside the occupied territories from any Israeli consequences or sanctions against them."

He continued, "They did not drink water throughout their liberation, and they ate whatever fruits they found in the orchards, such as patience, figs and others."

Feldman said that Al-Zubaidi did not participate in the excavation work, and joined the six prisoners' room one day before they emerged from the tunnel, which took about a year to dig.


On September 6, the six prisoners, Mahmoud Arda, Yaqoub Qadri, Muhammad Ardah, Ayham Kammji and Munadil Nafeat (from the Islamic Jihad movement), and Zakaria al-Zubaidi (from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades affiliated with Fatah) managed to escape from the high-security Gilboa prison in the Bisan area through A tunnel they dug, in an operation that became known as the "Freedom Tunnel".

4 of them were re-arrested near Nazareth last Friday and Saturday, and the Israeli forces continue to search for Nafa'at's fighter and Ayham Kammji.

From the tunnel to the waterwheel

A statement by the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority, whose lawyer, Raslan Mahajna, was able after midnight last night to meet Mahmoud Ardah, who is described as the architect of the operation, said that he and his companions began digging the tunnel in December of last year.

"During the escape, we had a small radio and we were watching what was happening outside," said Mahmoud Ardah, 46, who has been detained since 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

He added, "We were the six prisoners together until we reached the village of Naoura (inside the Green Line) and entered the mosque, and from there we dispersed every two... We tried to enter the West Bank areas, but there were great security reinforcements and strictures."

He added, "We were arrested (he and his companion Yaqoub Qadri) by chance, and no one from Nazareth reported us, as a police patrol passed and when it saw us, it stopped and the arrest was made."

The prisoner Mahmoud Ardah, who is described as the engineer of the (European) Freedom Tunnel operation

The Israeli authorities claim that the arrest of the four prisoners came after people were informed of their whereabouts.

"I reassure my mother about my health, my spirits are high, and I salute my sister in Gaza," Mahmoud Ardah said, describing the operation as a "great achievement."

Abuse and sleep deprivation

As for the lawyer Khaled Mahajna, after midnight last night, he also visited the prisoner Muhammad Ardah, and he was quoted as saying that he was beaten and tortured and since his arrest he has not been allowed to sleep for only 10 hours. He also confirmed that he has been deprived of food, and that the occupation is currently holding him in a narrow cell under strict supervision.

Mahajna quoted Muhammad Ardah, 39, who has been detained since 2002 and sentenced to life imprisonment, as saying that his arrest with his companion Zakaria al-Zubaidi was a "coincidence".

He added, "When the search of the occupation forces was nearing completion in the hiding place of Muhammad Ardah and Zakaria al-Zubaidi, they were found by chance when one of the occupation forces extended his hands and grabbed Muhammad."

Lawyers Raslan and Khaled Mahajna from Umm al-Fahm spoke to Al-Jazeera Net after they met the two prisoners Mahmoud and Muhammad Ardah in Al-Jalama prison near Haifa, and confirmed that the prisoners are in high spirits, and that they are convinced that they will take their freedom in the future from Israeli prisons.

This was the first meeting with lawyers since the re-arrest of the prisoners. Raslan and Khaled were able to overturn the order preventing the prisoners from meeting, as they submitted an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court against the decision of the Central Court to prevent lawyers from meeting the prisoners on the recommendation of the Shin Bet security service.

Lawyer Raslan Mahajna explained that it was very important to meet the prisoners immediately after their arrest and not to wait for the ban to expire, which will be prolonged and may reach the end of this September due to the Jewish holidays.

The Israeli intelligence required that one lawyer plead for each prisoner, and forbade one lawyer to plead for more than one prisoner, claiming that the security services feared that the lawyer would transmit messages and coordinate positions and statements between the four prisoners.

Meet the two brothers

On the other hand, Basem Ardah reported the details of his meeting with his brother Muhammad Al-Ardah during the investigation period in the occupation prisons.

Bassem spoke about the feelings of brotherhood and longing that brought them together for less than "a quarter of an hour" and their talk about the family and the country.

Bassem said, "My brother Muhammad told me about the moments of freedom, and he said: I walked in the country.. I walked, my brother.. 22 years. We see the sky tiled with nets, and there is no space in the prison," referring to the restrictions that prevent the captive from seeing the sky and the limited space for walking. Inside the prison walls.

As for the lawyer of the Prisoners Authority, Hanan Al-Khatib, she also conveyed some details after meeting with the prisoner Yaqoub Qadri, and said that he is in high spirits and assures that as long as he is alive, he will search for his freedom again and again.

And about the five days of freedom, Qadri said that it was the most beautiful days of his life. It was a dream for him to see the occupied territories, and it came true, as he reached the Mount Carmel area and was happy because he approached his country, as he is originally from the village of Al-Mansi, located near Haifa.

He stated that he saw a group of children gathering around their families in front of a house, and this scene was one of the most beautiful scenes he had seen and imprinted in his memory.

The lawyer, quoting Qadri, said that the escape operation was scheduled to take place a week later, but something went wrong, after which they had to implement it directly.

Regarding the conditions of detention and interrogation, the lawyer says that the Israeli soldiers stripped the prisoner of all his clothes, searched him naked, and then transferred him to the Nazareth interrogation, and used psychological pressure more than physical torture. the basics of life.

Prisoners' strike suspended

Meanwhile, the leadership of the prisoner movement inside the Israeli occupation prisons announced the suspension of the open strike that was scheduled to be launched next Friday, after the prison administration agreed to return life to what it was before the six prisoners succeeded in escaping from Gilboa prison.

The leadership of the captive movement said, in a statement, that the prison administration pledged to solve the issue of the isolated Islamic Jihad prisoners and the prisoners inside the prison and regroup them after distributing them between the cells.

She explained that the suspension of the strike excludes the Islamic Jihad Movement, which expressed its reservations about this and stressed that it is continuing with the escalation procedures, and not to comply with the procedures of the occupation inside the prison, until the end of all penalties.

Meanwhile, Israel imposed a closure on the occupied Palestinian territories from Wednesday afternoon and is scheduled to continue until Thursday evening on the occasion of the Jewish Day of Atonement.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that the security forces are preparing in anticipation of the outbreak of Palestinian demonstrations, in parallel with the continuation of the search for the two prisoners, Manadil Nafeat and Ayham Kammji.

She added that reinforced police forces were deployed in Jewish and Arab residential communities in the Marj Ibn Amer area, close to the Israeli wall in the northern West Bank.

On the other hand, as Palestinian anger increased, the Israeli police said in a statement that they had arrested a Palestinian in Jaffa on suspicion of stabbing an Israeli.

And last Monday, a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier at the Gush Etzion junction, south of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Before that, a Palestinian died on Friday of wounds he sustained during an attempt to stab in occupied Jerusalem.