Abu Obeida, the military spokesperson for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, confirmed on Saturday that the escape of the prisoners has once again exposed how fragile the enemy's security is.

No Gilboa prisoners, no deal

Abu Obeida declared that no prisoners’ swap deal will take place at any cost without the 6 prisoners who liberated themselves from the Gilboa Prison, stressing that re-arresting the heroes of the Freedom Tunnel does not conceal the shame inflicted upon the Israeli security establishment.

He added that the Jenin Camp and its revolutionaries are not alone in the face of the enemy's threats against “our people in the West Bank,” highlighting that if the heroes of the Freedom Tunnel have attained their freedom from under the ground, “we promise them that they will soon be liberated from above the ground."

No prisoners will be left behind

Abu Ubaidah addressed the resilient prisoners saying that they stand shoulder to shoulder with them in their honorable uprising, stressing that they will always stand by them, that they won’t abandon them, and that they won’t allow the enemy to vent out its anger on them like there is no one on their side.  

The arrests were not "intelligence-made"

On Friday, the Israeli army radio channel announced that the IOF had captured two of the six detainees who broke out of Gilboa Prison: Mahmoud al-Arida and Yaqoub Qadri, and later at dawn, it announced capturing two other detainees: Mohammed al-Arida and Zakaria al-Zubaidi.

Israeli media had said that the arrest was not the result of intelligence nor fieldwork, rather the "vigilance of the settlers" who noticed them and called the occupation police.

Marches and confrontations in support of prisoners

As soon as the announcement of the prisoners' re-arrest was made, marches took place throughout occupied Palestine and confrontations erupted at Beita town, southeast of Nablus. Meanwhile, a massive march took place in the town of Arraba, south of Jenin, in support of the prisoners’ families.

In the meantime, resistance fighters detonated an explosive device near the Jalama checkpoint and opened fire on the occupation forces near Halhul Bridge. They also fired on the house of an Israeli police brigade in the town of Kafr Kana.

A leader of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Daoud Shehab, had confirmed that the Resistance has not yet sheathed its sword and it will draw it at any time to protect the prisoners who are subjected to brutal attacks in the occupation prisons.

A recount

Three days after the prisoners have snatched their freedom from under the Gilboa Prison, the occupation quickly launched campaigns against the prisoners inside the occupation's 23 prisons and detention centers all over the occupied Palestinian territories.

The occupation forces also carried out inspection campaigns, cut the time prisoners spend outdoors down to one hour, limited the number of prisoners in the prison yard, prevented family visits, impeded the prisoners’ free movement, increased the number of prisoners present in the same cell, and subjected them to collective punishments.

Following the arbitrary measures of the occupation forces against the Palestinian prisoners and their continuous assault on them, angry marches took place throughout Palestine in support of the prisoners in Israeli prisons.