Released from Gilboa.. Prisoner Fares Khalifa: We saw defeat in the eyes of the jailers

Tulkarm -

"I saw the jailers defeated before the will and

steadfastness

of the prisoners of the Freedom Tunnel."

This is what the Palestinian prisoner Fares Khalifa, who was the first to be released from the Israeli Gilboa prison, spoke after the "most dangerous and complex" escape operation, according to the description of the occupation itself.

In his account of Al Jazeera Net, Khalifa, who spent 15 years in the prisons of the occupation - the last of which was in Gilboa prison - talked about the details of the "miracle" that occurred at the dawn of the sixth of this September, after which the prisoners in the occupation prisons woke up to a new reality.

Khalifa says, "On that day, the prisoners learned from the Gilboa prison administration's announcement that there was a shortage in the number (the census) that the jailers conducted for the prisoners at six in the morning, and that 6 of their comrades in one of the cells of Section 2 were missing, so it became clear that they had managed to free themselves since One o'clock at night by escaping from a tunnel they dug under their cell."

With the first moments of discovering the event - says Khalifa - the jailers "despite their moral and psychological defeat" began to attack the four prison sections, and closed the vital facilities there, such as the kitchen, the laundry and the canteen (the prison grocery).

For two whole days, the prisoners in Gilboa prison, who numbered about 400, were prevented from going out for the fore (the daily hour during which they are allowed to leave the cells and into the prison yard).

On the third day, they allowed the exit of certain numbers and under heavy security guard.

Punishment continues

Until the moments of his release last Monday, the prisoners were subject to penalties, and he added that the process of counting prisoners and examining their rooms, which was carried out 3 times a day, is now carried out "once every half hour."

Fares Khalifa denied the transfer of all prisoners in Gilboa prison to other prisons through the "mobile cells" that were seen in front of the prison on the day the six escaped, and said that the occupation transferred prisoners of Section 2, where the escapee, and prisoners of Section 3, went out as punishment after one of them threw hot water at the jailers In response to repressive measures.

The released prisoner said, "At that time, the two divisions stormed the Yasam and Masada units in charge of suppressing the prisoners, and transported them without allowing them to take any of their belongings."

The occupation not only punished the prisoners of the Islamic Jihad movement, to which 5 of the prisoners of the "Freedom Tunnel" belong, but also extended to all.

And you - the prisoners - how did you respond to the prison administration?

We asked Khalifa, and he said that they realized that they would be punished collectively because of the event and its magnitude.

But he added that he did not witness a unified position of the prisoners from all factions, such as the one that followed the "Freedom Tunnel" operation, where they all decided to engage in collective escalatory steps and to start an open hunger strike, and not to remain silent in the face of their oppression.

The six prisoners who managed to escape from Gilboa prison, the occupation re-arrested 4 of them days later (Al-Jazeera)

Logistics Engineer

Khalifa says that the failure to reveal the plan of the six prisoners before their escape was piled up by the occupation, claiming that other prisoners knew about digging the tunnel to escape, but Khalifa said, "If someone other than the six prisoners knew, the matter would not have been revealed.

“As for the arrival of the prisoner Zakaria al-Zubaidi to the fugitives’ cell, it is another story of intelligence,” Khalifa adds, saying that a captive of his size will surely be from the first moment with the prisoners in their plan, and may even be the “logistical engineer” of the operation, “as he is credited with entering a room. The five prisoners were 10 minutes before the closure of the station at night, and if he had done that before to draw attention.”

A week before Operation "Freedom Tunnel", Faris Khalifa and prisoners of Section 1 in Gilboa Prison met with prisoner Zakaria al-Zubaidi during his visit to them.

Before that, the prisoners Mahmoud Ardah and other six escape perpetrators visited them.

Khalifa said, "We did not notice anything strange in their words or actions, and things seemed calm and going smoothly, and this confirms their experience and intelligence."

Contrary to the Israeli announcement of the failure to discover the tunnel that the prisoners dug for about a year under Gilboa Prison, Khalifa confirmed that the prison administration informed their representative, Muhammad Abu Rabia, that it had previously found two other tunnels, without specifying their location in any section.

But he personally ruled this out, and said that "the occupation wanted to cover up the scandal of its state and give the illusion that they are vigilant and know what is going on around them, while the truth is that they have not discovered anything, and they provide stories to save their face and remedy their failure."

Gilboa Prison in northern Palestine, after discovering the escape of the six prisoners, is known as the most fortified Israeli prison (Al-Jazeera)

Failures against the will of the prisoners

Regarding the security failures of the occupation as well, such as the gathering of prisoners that classifies them as dangerous together in one cell, a question that has occurred to many, Khalifa said that this is due to the ingenuity and intelligence of the prisoners in moving between sections and their exploitation of many “loopholes” to achieve this purpose.

"And among them is the indifference of some of the warders, their novelty and their experience, especially those who come for temporary service in return for low salaries, which facilitates the purchase of their debts," which is what Palestinian prisoners exploit in all prisons.

"Otherwise, how did the one who digs a tunnel with a spoon and a chair man defeat aircraft owners and technological development? If it weren't for the will that they enjoy and that most of them tried to escape several times."

The "Freedom Tunnel" operation became a nightmare chasing the jailers, and the released prisoner says that he felt this reality after he was isolated in a cell, because the prison officer, who delayed his release for about 5 hours, told him that this was "to break his joy and the joy of his family in Tulkarm." He should say, "The six captives have shaken your dignity and the dignity of your fragile being."

"I saw the defeat in the officer's face," Fares said, adding that "the image of the arrest and the penalties does not cancel the image of the victory that has been achieved."