The movement of prisoners in Israeli jails and detention centers announced a general mobilization, and threatened to rebel against all prison administration laws, if the “repressive and punitive” measures taken against them continued since the escape of six prisoners from the heavily guarded Gilboa prison in northern Israel.
The Prisoners’ Affairs Authority (an official Palestinian body) said that quick consultations took place between the movement’s leaders in prisons and detention centers, adding that an agreement was reached to confront the attacks of the “special repression units” and the prison police by all means and methods.
The commission, which deals with prisoners’ affairs, accused the Israeli government and its agencies of working to “cover up their failure and defeat in front of the solid will of the Palestinian prisoners, through a fierce attack on the prisoners inside jails and detention centers, and on our people, through incursions and arrests that targeted the families of the six escaped prisoners…”
The prisoners set fire to the rooms of Section 6 in the Negev Prison in protest against the Israeli escalation and transfers, and also tried to set fire to other prisons.
The administration of the Israeli Prisons Authority had drawn up a plan to transfer and disperse the prisoners of the Islamic Jihad movement inside multiple other prisons; a step that might led a serious security escalation.
In retaliation for the Israeli campaign, a prisoner in Gilboa attacked an Israeli guard with hot water.
The Prisoner’s Club said that the prisoner Malik Hamed from Silwad poured hot water on a jailer in Gilboa prison, in response to “the operations of repression and abuse against the prisoners.” The guards abused Hamed, then isolated him, before transferring all prisoners of Section 3 to Shata prison.
Israel’s pursuit of the fugitive prisoners continued on Wednesday, while the security services tried to put increasing pressure by arresting their relatives.
The occupation forces arrested Yaqoub Nafeat, the father of the escaped prisoner Munadel Nafeat, and Raddad Al-Ardah, the brother of Mahmoud Al-Ardah from the town of Arraba. They also detained Bassem Al-Ardah, the brother of the pursued captive Mohammad Al-Ardah.
The Israeli army had stormed the towns of Yaabad and Arraba (south of Jenin) in search of camera recording devices. Then the soldiers raided the fugitives’ homes and arrested their families. Hundreds of soldiers, intelligence men, police dogs, drones and various helicopters are chasing the six prisoners in large areas.
