Palestinian Prisoners Used Coca Cola to Escape Gilboa Prison

Gilboa prison, from which the Palestinian prisoners escaped. (EPA)
Gilboa prison, from which the Palestinian prisoners escaped. (EPA)
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Palestinian Prisoners Used Coca Cola to Escape Gilboa Prison

Gilboa prison, from which the Palestinian prisoners escaped. (EPA)
Gilboa prison, from which the Palestinian prisoners escaped. (EPA)

A report on the escape of six Palestinian prisoners from the Gilboa prison in early September has indicated that they likely crumbled the concrete on the floor of the cell using acid or Coca Cola soft drink.

The Israeli Army’s Combat Engineering Corps issued a report showing that the escape route of the prisoners included lifting a marble slab in the shower cubicle and digging a tunnel shaft through layers of steel and concrete to the space below.

“The prisoners dug a tunnel shaft under a marble slab in the shower cubicle, passing through the top tin (5 mm of steel) and through the ground floor (20 cm of concrete) into the underground space,” the report read.

It pointed to the fact that the concrete can be weakened and crumbled over time by using various acids, without the use of special means, “a cola drink can be used.”

“The length of the escape tunnel is about 35 meters, 29 meters of which they dug themselves, with an average diameter of 0.5 meters, which includes around 5-6 cubic meters of soil, they gradually disposed through the sewers.”

“The excavation material was used to line the excavated route inside the spaces of the link beams, saving the need to evacuate the excavation material into the prison,” it explained.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Prison Service (IPS) transferred the prisoners, who will be indicted on Sunday, to solitary confinement in various prisons.

According to Karim Ajwa, a lawyer in the Palestinian Authority's Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Committee, Mahmoud al-Ardah has been placed in a small and dirty cell in Ashkelon prison.

He is being monitored constantly in solitary confinement, including when he uses the toilet, depriving him of privacy.

He is considering a hunger strike if his prison conditions worsen in the coming days, Ajwa stressed.

Zakaria Zubeidi is being held in the notorious desert prison of Eshel in the Negev, in southern Israel, Ajwa said, while Ayham Kamةji has been moved to solitary confinement in Ohli Kedar prison, also in the Negev, Yaqoub Qadri to Rimonim prison and Munadel Nfeiat and Mahmoud Abdullah Ardah to Ayalon prison in Ramla.



Rockets Fired from Gaza into Israel, Tanks Advance in North and South

People walk at the remains of a market after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
People walk at the remains of a market after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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Rockets Fired from Gaza into Israel, Tanks Advance in North and South

People walk at the remains of a market after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
People walk at the remains of a market after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday, in an apparent show of force as Israeli tanks pressed their advance deeper into Gaza amid fierce fighting, residents and officials said.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas, said its fighters fired rockets towards several Israeli settlements near the fence with Gaza in response to "the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people".
The volley of around 20 rockets caused no casualties, according to the Israeli military. But it showed militants still possess rocket capabilities almost nine months into Israel's offensive it says is aimed at neutralizing threats against it.
In some parts of Gaza, militants continue to stage attacks on Israeli forces in areas that the army had left months ago.
On Monday, Israeli tanks deepened their incursions into the Shejaia suburb in eastern Gaza City for a fifth day, and tanks advanced further in western and central Rafah, in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, residents said.
According to Reuters, the Israeli military said it had killed a number of militants in combat in Shejaia on Monday and found large amounts of weapons there.
Hamas said that, in Rafah, its militants lured an Israeli force into a booby-trapped house in the east of the city and then blew it up, causing casualties.
Also in Rafah, the Israeli military said that an airstrike killed a militant who fired an anti-tank missile at its troops.
Israel has signaled that its operation in Rafah, meant to stamp out Hamas, will soon be concluded. After the intense phase of the war is over, its forces will focus on smaller scale operations meant to stop Hamas reassembling, officials say.

More than 37,900 Palestinians have been killed and 87,060 have been injured in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.