Last week's Gilboa Prison break was caught on the facility's security cameras but was missed by the prison guard on duty in the control room because he was watching TV, Walla news reported on Monday, citing an unnamed source privy to the initial investigation.
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The Sept. 6 escape from the maximum-security facility in northern Israel is one of the gravest jailbreaks in the country's history. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has tasked a governmental commission on inquiry to review the incident. The panel will be headed by retired judge and former IDF Judge Advocate General Menachem Finkelstein.
As the manhunt for the fugitive terrorists entered its seventh day Monday, only two of the six remain at large.
Four of the Palestinian security prisoners were apprehended over the weekend: Yaqoub Mahmoud Qadri and Mohammed Qassem al-Arida were caught in Nazareth Friday night. Hours later, notorious Fatah terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi and PIJ terrorist Mohammed al-Arida – believed to be the mastermind behind the escape – were arrested in the nearby town of Shibli–Umm al-Ghanam.
In both cases, Arab Israelis who encountered the fugitives reported them to authorities, aiding in their capture.
According to the official quoted in Walla's report, as the prisoners began emerging from the underground shaft they had dug under the prison walls, the prison guard dogs began barking, which triggered audio sensors used by the Israel Prison Service to alert the prison guards to the barking.
The signal was sent to Gilboa's control center, further triggering a technological feature that turned some of the facility's security cameras to the area where the dogs were barking, to document the scene.
However, it seems that the prison guard on duty that night in the control center was watching TV and missed the fact that the six were escaping.
Moreover, the footage shows that the fugitives lingered by the entrance to the shaft for about 20 minutes, helping one of them – who was stuck – out of it.
It also seems that days before the escape, prison maintenance teams alerted the guards to the fact that they were finding large quantities of sand in the facility's trash bins, but the information was dismissed.
The manhunt for the remaining two fugitives, Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat, continues with full force and includes police officers, Shin Bet agents, and Border Police forces, the police said.
Channel 12 News reported that it is now believed they were able to get to the West Bank, and are most likely trying to get the Jenin, a known hub of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Israeli media reported that military intelligence has spotted large PIJ deployment on the ground in Jenin, as the terrorist group is gearing up to protect its operatives if they get to the city.
Commenting on the manhunt earlier Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said that Israel's security forces "will not stop until they are caught and will not allow the terrorist organizations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria to turn this event into a reason to harm the country's citizens."
A senior official in the IDF's Southern Command was cited as saying that "if the political echelon gives us the green light – we know how to get wherever is necessary. Aiding these fugitives will have consequences."
So far, Shin Bet security service agents have arrested 10 of Kamamji and Nafiyat's relatives and friends.
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