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.



Israeli Strike Kills a Senior Hezbollah Commander in South Lebanon

 Rockets launched from Lebanon to Israel over the border are intercepted, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Israel, near the border with Lebanon, July 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Rockets launched from Lebanon to Israel over the border are intercepted, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Israel, near the border with Lebanon, July 3, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strike Kills a Senior Hezbollah Commander in South Lebanon

 Rockets launched from Lebanon to Israel over the border are intercepted, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Israel, near the border with Lebanon, July 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Rockets launched from Lebanon to Israel over the border are intercepted, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Israel, near the border with Lebanon, July 3, 2024. (Reuters)

An Israeli strike killed one of Hezbollah's top commanders in south Lebanon on Wednesday, prompting retaliatory rocket fire by the Iran-backed group into Israel as their dangerously poised conflict rumbled on.

The Israeli military said it had struck and eliminated Hezbollah's Mohammed Nasser, calling him commander of a unit responsible for firing from southwestern Lebanon at Israel.

Nasser, killed by an airstrike near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, was the one of the most senior Hezbollah commanders to die yet in the conflict, two security sources in Lebanon said.

Sparked by the Gaza war, the hostilities have raised concerns about a wider and ruinous conflict between the heavily armed adversaries, prompting US diplomatic efforts aimed at de-escalation.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli forces were hitting Hezbollah "very hard every day" and will be ready to take any action necessary against the group, though the preference is to reach a negotiated arrangement.

Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets at the border after its Palestinian ally Hamas launched the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, declaring support for the Palestinians and saying it would cease fire when Israel stops its Gaza offensive.

Hezbollah announced at least two attacks in response to what it called "the assassination", saying it launched 100 Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military base and its Iranian-made Falaq missiles at another base in the town of Kiryat Shmona near the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Israel's Channel 12 broadcaster reported that dozens of rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon. There were no reports of casualties. The Israeli Defense Ministry said that air raid sirens sounded in several parts of northern Israel.

Israel's military did not give a number of rockets launched but said most of them fell in open areas, some were intercepted, while a number of launches fell in the area of Kiryat Shmona.

It added that no injuries were reported but firefighters were working to extinguish a number of fires that were ignited by the rocket attack.

Following the rocket salvos, it said, Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah launcher that was used to fire the barrages toward Israel as well as two additional launchers.

The sources in Lebanon said Nasser was responsible for a section of Hezbollah's operations at the frontier. One of the sources said a second Hezbollah fighter and a civilian were also killed.

Nasser was of the same rank and importance as Taleb Abdallah, a top commander who was killed by an Israeli strike in June, prompting Hezbollah to fire its largest barrages of drones and rockets yet in retaliation, the sources said.

The Israeli military statement said Nasser and Abdallah "served as two of the most significant Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon".

Senior Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah said Nasser had known he was a target but had not left the battlefield in nine months. Hezbollah would inflict its "punitive response" on Israel for "its crime, so that this enemy understands that the arm of the resistance is long", he said.

The hostilities have inflicted a heavy toll on both sides of the frontier, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters and 87 civilians, according to Reuters tallies. Israel says fire from Lebanon has killed 18 soldiers and 10 civilians.