The arrest Saturday night of the last two prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison shows that Israel has very good intelligence sources in the West Bank, residents of Jenin said on Sunday.
The arrest of Ayham Kamamji and Munadel Enfayat is also a blow to the Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen in the Jenin Refugee Camp who had over the past few days pledged to defend the fugitives and foil any attempt by the IDF to enter the camp or the city of Jenin, the residents added.
Kamamji and Enfayat, members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, surrendered to the IDF after the house they were hiding in in the eastern part of Jenin City was surrounded by dozens of soldiers.
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The two were hiding in the home of Abdel Rahman Abu Ja’far, a clothes merchant whose brother, Ehab, was one of the commanders of Fatah’s armed wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, during the Second Intifada.
Abdel Rahman Abu Ja’far was arrested by the IDF together with the fugitives.
masked gunmen in the streets of Jenin Refugee Camp (credit: KHALED ABU-TOAMEH)
“The arrest of the two prisoners shows that Israel has collaborators in Jenin,” said Jenin resident Abdullah al-Natour. “Unfortunately, collaborators have always existed not only in Jenin but in most cities, villages and refugee camps.”
Natour pointed out that during the First Intifada, which erupted in 1987, gunmen in the Jenin area took it upon themselves to kill any Palestinian suspected of collaboration with Israel. They also targeted IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens.
Then, a Fatah-affiliated armed group called Fahd al-Aswad (Black Panther) killed several suspected informants in the Jenin area, forcing many others to flee their homes. The IDF set up a special camp called Fahmeh on the southern outskirts of Jenin for the suspected collaborators and their families. Other families were moved to Arab communities inside Israel.
Some Palestinian social media users accused the Palestinian Authority of assisting Israel in tracking down the two fugitives. They pointed out that security coordination between the PA security forces and the IDF enabled Israel to locate the fugitives.
A senior PA official in Jenin denied the charge, saying the Palestinian security forces had nothing to do with the arrest.
Over the past few days, gunmen belonging to Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad warned that Israel would “pay a heavy price” if the IDF entered the camp or Jenin City to recapture the escaped prisoners.
But most of the gunmen were nowhere to be seen when a large number of security forces entered different parts of Jenin as a distraction.
On Sunday, several residents scoffed at the threats made by the gunmen. “The gunmen promised to foil an Israeli invasion of Jenin,” said Bassam Ata, another Jenin resident. “Why make such threats if you know that you can’t do anything when the soldiers enter Jenin?”
A Fatah activist in Jenin Refugee Camp said that he and his friends expected the IDF to raid the camp and not the Jenin neighborhood where the fugitives were hiding.
“The two men were arrested outside the camp,” he said. “Were they staying inside the camp, the Israeli army would not have been able to catch them. We had dozens of armed men waiting for the army.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials and factions continued to heap praise on the six inmates who managed to escape from Gilboa Prison and were all re-arrested by the Israeli security forces.
They said that the escape drew the world’s attention to the “plight” of the Palestinian prisoners in Israel and vowed to pursue efforts to secure the release of all of the inmates. They also said that the recapture of the escaped prisoners does not dimmish the “great achievement” they scored by breaking out of a high-security prison.
PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yusef praised the escaped prisoners as “heroes” and called on Palestinians to continue launching campaigns in support of all of the security prisoners.
Abu Yusef, in an interview with the PA’s Voice of Palestine radio station, called on the International Criminal Court “to expedite its investigation into the crimes of the occupation against the prisoners.”
Another PLO official, Ahmed Majdalani, praised the six fugitives for bringing the issue of all prisoners to the attention of the international community.
He said that the PA leadership was planning to raise the issue of the prisoners before the United Nations General Assembly during its upcoming meeting in New York.
Qadoura Fares, head of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoner Club, said that the six prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison “restored the unity of the Palestinian street, and proved the importance of unity.”
Hamas, for its part, said that the Palestinian “resistance” groups will continue to work towards securing the release of all the security prisoners.
Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said that the time has come to “cut off the Israeli arm that kidnapped” the two fugitives in Jenin.
Senior Hamas official Ahmed Bahr condemned Israel for recapturing the escaped prisoners in Jenin.
Bahr warned that the arrest of the two fugitives “does not mean the end of the story,” adding that the escape dealt a severe blow to Israel. He too promised that Hamas would do its utmost to free all the security prisoners.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the re-arrest of the six fugitives “will not erase the impact of the defeat inflicted on the occupation.”
The group reiterated its pledge to continue working for the release of all of the prisoners and held Israel responsible for any harm to the lives of the inmates.
The group also called on the military wings of the Palestinian factions “to remain in a state of alert and high readiness to defend the prisoners.”
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