Israel accuses spoon-tunnel fugitives of plotting terror attack

Abbie Cheeseman
·2 min read
A protester holds a spoon, which has become a symbol celebrating the six Palestinian prisoners who tunneled out of Gilboa Prison - Ariel Schalit/AP
A protester holds a spoon, which has become a symbol celebrating the six Palestinian prisoners who tunneled out of Gilboa Prison - Ariel Schalit/AP

The Palestinian prisoners who dug out of an Israeli jail using a rusty spoon last week were plotting a terror attack in their window of freedom, Israeli prosecutors have said.

Five days into the manhunt, police found two of the six escapees in Nazareth on Friday night and two more in the nearby town of Shibli–Umm al-Ghanam - including famed militant Zakaria Zubeidi.

Following an interrogation of the four captured prisoners, police and intelligence services decided that the group had no accomplices on the outside to aid their escape and no help from any prison guards inside Gilboa jail.

Israeli media reports suggest that the investigators believed there was no clear plan for the group once they had managed their “meticulous” escape.

The four men were taken to a district court in Nazareth on Saturday night for their first closed-door hearing. Prosecutors reportedly accused them of planning to carry out a major terrorist attack after their escape - a charge that could add 15 years onto their sentences.

“The heroes of the ‘freedom tunnel’ will come out with heads held high and the Qassam command has decided that there will be no exchange deal without freeing those heroes,” said Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida, using the name of Hamas’ military wing.

The incident was seen as an embarrassment for the Israeli security services that exposed serious flaws in its prison system.

Details have emerged of guards falling asleep, the blueprints of the prison being available online and a previous attempt at tunnelling out of the prison being foiled without any operational changes taking place.

The “mission” to find the two prisoners still at large, Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat, is continuing, said Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett.

Mr Nafiyat was being held on administrative detention - a practice that allows suspects, often Palestinian, to be held indefinitely without being charged of any crime and without trial.

Kamamji was serving a life-sentence for killing an 18 year-old Israeli in 2006.