The six Palestinian security prisoners who broke out of the maximum-security Gilboa prison in northern Israel early last month were indicted on Sunday, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.
State prosecutors filed indictments at Nazareth Magistrate’s Court against Zakaria Zubeidi, Mahmoud al-Arida, Munadil Nafiyat, Muhammad al-Arida, Yaquob Qadiri, and Iham Kamamji on charges of escaping from lawful custody — an offense that carries a maximum penalty of up to seven years in prison. The indictment bill did not list any terrorism, despite police estimates.
According to the charges, five of the prisoners were in on the original planning of the escape. Zakaria Zubeidi — a notorious figure considered by many Palestinians to be the symbol of a violence wave against Israelis in the early 2000s, known as the Second Intifada — was invited to join them shortly before their jailbreak, hoping his clout within the Palestinian Authority, as well as his political connections, would help them avoid being captured by Israeli security forces.
"The prisoners dug a tunnel under their cell shower," the charges read. "They took turns to avoid being detected. They removed a marble slab under the sink each day as they dug their tunnel, using improvised tools and returned it to its place in order to mask their actions."
Five other inmates have also been indicted for allegedly aiding the fugitives in planning and carrying out their escape.
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Clockwise from top left: Munadil Nafiyat, Zakaria Zubeidi, Mohammed al-Arida, Iham Kamamji, Yaquob Qadiri, Mahmoud al-Arida
(Photo: EPA)
The five are accused of standing watch to make sure that any approaching guards did not discover the digging in the cell and to prevent other prisoners from entering. Some also helped with getting rid of soil dug out of the tunnel, prosecutors said.
The six escapees — five of which are affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group and accused of deadly attacks against Israelis — tunneled out of the penitentiary through a shaft in the floor of their bathroom in the biggest jailbreak of its kind in decades.
They later split up into groups of two. The first four were apprehended in the northern Arab village of Shibli–Umm al-Ghanam, near the city of Nazareth, while the final pair were apprehended a few days later in the West Bank town of Jenin.
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IDF troops searching after the escaped prisoners near the West Bank border
(Photo: EPA)
The incident marked an embarrassing security breach for Israel and sparked a massive manhunt in northern Israel and the West Bank.
Riots broke out across several Israeli prisons as Palestinian security prisoners protested new curbs imposed on them following the incident, with some inmates setting their cells alight and attacking guards.
Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip warned that any harm done to the fugitives will ignite a wave of violence against Israel and called for popular unrest on the West Bank. However, the turnout was low and only a few clashes with Israeli troops were recorded afterward.