After a manhunt that lasted almost two weeks, the Border Police and the Shin Bet early Sunday morning captured the last two terrorists who escaped from Gilboa Prison—Islamic Jihad terrorists Iham Kamamji and Munadil Anfiyat—in Jenin, in the Palestinian Authority. Israeli troops arrived at the house where the two terrorists were staying. The two turned out to be unarmed and were arrested without resistance. They were taken for Shin Bet interrogation, along with two residents of Jenin who are suspected of aiding and abetting them.
סוף למצוד: צה”ל פרסם תיעוד ממעצר המחבלים איהם כמאמג’י ומנאדל איניפיעאת. מצה”ל נמסר כי יחד עם המחבלים נעצרו שני סייענים (צילום: דובר צה”ל) pic.twitter.com/UVE21J8yaT
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news)
During the operation in Jenin, a large IDF force, accompanied by dozens of vehicles acted on the other side of the city to create a deception before the arrest. Once the terrorists had been apprehended, all the forces left the city.
The Islamic Jihad terrorists have been hiding together in recent days in the house in Jenin. Following intelligence information that reached the Shin Bet, security forces arrived at the building overnight Sunday and surrounded it. Then the two escaped prisoners came out and turned themselves in without resistance. Kamamji called his father after the forces had surrounded the house to tell him he intended to turn himself in so as not to cause harm to the occupants of the house.
“I expected him to call me when he was in a safe place in Gaza or Lebanon,” the father told reporters. “I was surprised he was still in Jenin after two weeks.”
המצוד אחרי המחבלים | מקורות פלסטיניים מדווחים על קולות ירי בג’נין בעקבות כניסה של כוחות צה”ל לשכונה המזרחית של העיר. דווח על פצוע פלסטיני בעימותים pic.twitter.com/OD6giOzU5d
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news)
Police believe Anfiyat crossed the border fence to the PA last Friday, and Kamamji managed to reach Jenin in the last two days.
Hader Adnan, a senior Islamic Jihad member in the PA, said that the capture of the six escaped security prisoners “will not erase Israel’s defeat in the operation to escape from Gilboa Prison.” He added that Jenin and her prisoners would continue to be “a thorn in the throat of the occupiers.”
The investigation that followed the escape shows that the excavation work of the tunnel in the escapees’ cell began in November-December 2020, and at least 11 inmates participated in the project, six of whom escaped. Five inmates in the wing are currently being questioned by the Shin Bet. The excavations were carried out using plates sharpened at the edges and panhandles which became digging tools. The prisoners scattered the sand from the tunnel in the sewer system, garbage cans, and in hollow shafts they found in the wing.