Israel detains 5 relatives of escaped Palestinian prisoners

By Qais Abu Samra

JENIN CITY, Palestine (AA) – The Israeli army on Friday detained five relatives of two of the six Palestinians who escaped from an Israeli prison earlier this week.

Three brothers of Mahmoud Abdullah el-Arida and a brother and relative of Yakub Mahmoud Qaderi were detained in the towns of Arraba and Bir al-Basha in the occupied West Bank’s northern Jenin city, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said in a statement.

El-Arida, Qaderi, and four others tunneled out of the high-security Gilboa prison in northern Israel on Monday.

The other four are Zakaria Zubeidi, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, Eyhem Fuad Kemamji, Mohammad Qasim el-Arida, and Munadel Yakub Nufey’at.

Apart from Zubeidi, the other five are members of the Islamic Jihad group.

The escape has been hailed as a “big victory” by Palestinians, while Israeli forces have launched a manhunt after what has been criticized in the country as an unacceptable security and intelligence failure.

* Writing by Ahmed Asmar