3 brothers of Mahmoud Abdullah el-Arida, brother, relative of Yakub Mahmoud Qaderi detained in Jenin
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
