The saga of the escaped terrorists from Gilboa prison came to an end on Sunday in the best way possible. The two terrorists who had remained on the run surrendered without a fight, and Israel closed the unfortunate chapter successfully, albeit with two glaring asterisks.

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The first asterisk is the immediate security situation. Things on the ground are still volatile in the wake of the affair. No issue unites the Palestinian street more than the security prisoners, and there are more than a few parties interested in leveraging the escape to ignite violence, riots and terrorist attacks.

In the first days following the prison break, tensions spiked on the two Palestinian fronts – Judea and Samaria and Gaza. Judea and Samaria saw an uptick in the number of attempted attacks, the vast majority of which were foiled. The situation on the ground is still combustible, as evidenced by the IDF's decision not to thin out the forces deployed there in recent weeks, rather remain on heightened alert over the Sukkot holiday due to fears of additional attacks.

Gaza, too, became more tempestuous in the aftermath of the jailbreak. Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched several rockets at Israel, until it was sternly advised to temper its zeal. Egypt is deeply involved in these efforts to calm matters, which shifted into another gear with the summit between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo. Yet still, the fundamental problems in Gaza remain unresolved, which means the current lull is merely temporary and that the armed groups in Gaza will find an excuse to renew their rocket attacks as soon as possible. Hence, the IDF is still on high alert in the south as well.

The second asterisk pertains to the Israel Prisons Service. The gap exposed between Israel's two security arms is unprecedented. One arm is particularly robust: In capturing the terrorists on Sunday, the Shin Bet, IDF, and the Yamam, the Israel Police's elite counter-terrorism unit, exhibited surgical capabilities that few militaries in the world can hope to match, operationally and in terms of the intelligence required. Since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, these capabilities have been refined into an art form, allowing Israel's security forces to detain terrorists on a nightly basis and prevent countless attacks.

The second arm, however, is particularly weak. The IPS exhibited complaisance, incompetence, amateurism, and any other negative superlative one might consider. The very fact that the entire chain of command involved in the fiasco hasn't voluntarily resigned yet indicates just how unprofessional and rotten the organization has become. We can only hope that the Finkelstein commission will do its job and lay a foundation for fixing the severe defects exposed by the escape.

What's most troubling is the intelligence lapse in the IPS. Among its more notorious shortcomings is that security prisoners have been the most active orchestrators of terrorist attacks, including but not limited to attacks aimed at securing their own release. If the prisons service's intelligence was unaware of a tunnel being dug for almost a year, we can only wonder what it knows, if anything, about other plans that might be in the works inside its facilities.

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We can assume the IPS will now try cleaning up the mess inside its prisons, and among the prisoners. It would do well not to act impulsively, rather according to a distinct directive that institutionalizes clear rules about the security prisoners' entitlements and conditions of their incarceration. Any other course of action could ignite this sensitive issue again and give the prisoners an unnecessary victory.

Regardless, the escape is perceived on the Palestinian street as a win over Israel. Similar to Operation Guardian of the Walls, the narrative is clear and works in favor of the weaker side. The final outcome – all six prisoners were captured and returned to jail – is less important. It was enough to see the captured terrorists' photoshopped smiling faces, disseminated on social media by Hamas, to understand the massive shot in the arm this affair has been to the Palestinian struggle – courtesy of the IPS and its failures.

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The Palestinian media quoted a prisoner leader who said that while a few dozen security prisoners had declined meals, no official hunger strike had been declared.

A senior IPS official told Israel Hayom that no steps taken by Palestinian prisoners would cause Israeli prison authorities to cancel recent widespread security reforms.

"We won't allow them to direct terrorist attacks from inside prison. In the future, we will take more severe steps against them," the official said.

Four prisoners who reportedly began hunger striking Sunday morning were Mohammad Arman of Hamas; Zaid Bisisi from the Islamic Jihad; Wael Al-Jagoub of the Popular Front and Hassan Derbasi of the Democratic Front.

It was expected that 1,400 more might join them by April 17, Palestinian Prisoners Day, with a prisoners' statement saying all prisoners would be invited to join on May 1, if no agreement was reached.

The strike was announced in advance, and is the culmination of protests and riots that started following prison authorities installing cellular signal jammers in the wards as part of a comprehensive rehaul of prison condition ordered by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.

The hunger strikers are demanding that the devices be removed, citing health concerns. They also asked for visits from their relatives resume – they are regularly interrupted for security reasons by Israeli authorities.

A communique by Qadri Abu Baker, chairman of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission at the Palestinian Authority, confirmed reports in media on Friday that a point of discussion was the installation of public telephones in the Negev and Ramon prisons.

Although cellphone use is forbidden in Israeli jails, authorities often tolerate it, controlling it through regular crackdowns.

"In order to prevent escalation, we will respond to every scenario with the utmost severity and determination to make it clear that the security of the prisons is in the hands of the IPS, and not by any other party," the source added.

Supporters of the prisoners took to social media, under the Arabic hashtag معركة_الكرامة# ("battle for dignity") with many seeing in the protest more than just an attempt at removing cell phone restrictions.

Although it denied doing so on Friday, numerous Palestinian and Israeli media outlets reported that negotiations were still under way on Sunday between representatives of the Palestinian prisoners and the IPS.

A political protest

The protest comes at a crucial point, as Israel enters the last week of its general election campaign, and the first week of what is expected to be intense political wrangling over the construction of a ruling coalition.

The issue is a cause of concern for the ruling party, which is running on a strict security platform, with some challenging it from the Right.

"Then they tell me Netanyahu supports the Right," tweeted MK Bezalel Smotrich, No. 2 on the Union of Right-Wing Parties list, deriding the prime minister after referring to reports of negotiations.

"They can get hungry as they want, to death, without forcefeeding and shoes. I call on Netanyahu to cease any discussion with the terrorists in prison," he added.

There are 5,370 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and they are a large and important constituency in the complex field of Palestinian politics. More than 80% of Palestinian families have one member in jail, according to some estimates.

They are organized in committees that oversee daily life in the prisons, as well as the relationship with Palestinian authorities on the outside.

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