Translation by "Jerusalem" dot com - Today, Wednesday, the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz published details of the testimonies of the investigation conducted with the guards of Gilboa prison , in which 6 prisoners managed a year ago to wrest their freedom from inside it through a ground tunnel, in what was known as the " tunnel of freedom ."

The Hebrew newspaper described what happened at the time as one of the biggest security failures that Israel has known.

The newspaper says in its report: Only seven hours after the six security prisoners escaped from Gilboa prison, the warden, "Noam" (female / prison guard), sat in front of the investigators of the investigation unit, at a time when those prisoners were being searched for. Naoum was the suspect The direct negligence of what happened, and the opening of the tunnel dug by the prisoners passed tens of meters away from the guard tower on which she was standing, but she did not notice anything, and admitted in her testimony to the investigators that she fell asleep during the guard.

And the newspaper adds: Naoum was not the only one who slept. For nine months, from December 2020 until the escape in September 2021, the Islamic Jihad prisoners dug a tunnel from the bathrooms in Cell No. 5 in Ward 2 of Gilboa Prison, beyond the walls of Prison, on their way to freedom, and the Prison Service intelligence had no idea, as dozens of searches during this time period did not show a single sign of the intention to escape, even the sand that was discovered in the prison plumbing, which led to repeated orders from the sewers to open the dams , did not turn on any red light about these intentions, and not only that - as the State Commission of Inquiry proved - the spaces under the prison were not filled with concrete, the prison command did not have a patrol car, and the prisoners watched the guards again and again.

The guard "Noam" arrived at the prison to serve only 5 days before her escape, and before that she was in Ketziot prison, and that night on the eve of the Jewish New Year, she was stationed for the first time in the corner guard tower known by the guards as the "ninth tower", and she began her shift In the middle of the night, at around 1:30 p.m., the prisoners began to exit from the tunnel outside the prison.

Naoum said in her testimony: "The officer told me that guarding the tower is like playing with salted fish... I have to look at those above me, behind me, and whoever stands beside me, that is, if someone is trying to enter or leave the prison." The same officer also testified that he "It's like a game of hide-and-seek," he explained. "Do you know the game?" I asked her. "Who stands behind me, beside me, above me and below me," she said.

Naoum said that because of back pain, she did not sit on a high chair in the tower so that she could see everything 360 degrees, but on a low chair that did not allow a wide field of vision, and indicated that “at 1:20 I heard a noise directly below my tower, I went out, and I did not see anything , and I was afraid someone might have entered my position, then I heard the pebbles, turned around and there was nothing, and went back to the chair after noticing everything was fine, and she didn't report because she didn't see anything, and she thought it was just what she was hearing fantasies".

Naoum admitted that she fell asleep a bit because she was suffering from stomach pain, and that it was between 12:40 to 1:20 at night, and she woke up when she heard a noise, and was awake, and was not in a state of full sleep.

The Hebrew newspaper indicates that there are two other guard towers from which the Sunni prisoners did not leave, and due to the lack of manpower, Tower 8, which dug the tunnel directly below it and was very close to the Exodus pit, did not have any guards, or Tower 7, which also overlooks the excavation. The exit was the guard "Ilan" at that time and he had been serving in a prison for about a year at that time, like "Noam" he was armed with an M16 rifle, and he had a flashlight and a wireless device, but he was unable to detect or notice anything.

"Ilan" testified that he spent the time in the tower smoking and reading a book, and at about one o'clock he heard the sound of dogs barking, went out to check, looked inside and around the prison and at the field area, and did not find anything for the full 3 minutes.

The investigation shows how long it took for the prison guards to realize their escape, and this would not have been known had it not been for a taxi driver who noticed suspicious people crossing the road from the prison towards the fields of Kibbutz Beit Hachita, and notified the Israeli police by phone about this at 1:49 at night.

And in a strange coincidence - as Haaretz says - a short time ago, the Israeli police received a call about a suspicious figure near the prison, and this call turned out to be false, but a police patrol officer was present in the area when the taxi driver's report came, and confirmed during his testimony that he called the center Prison control and they told him: "Calm down, it's a shift change.. I told him: It's two in the morning, it can't be," before he announced at only 3:20 in the morning that what was really an escape operation.

The newspaper says that it became clear only in the early morning hours that the fugitives were five prisoners from the Islamic Jihad movement and the leader of Fatah Zakaria Zubaidi, and it was found that any of them Kammaji infiltrated the cell the night before under the sight of the guards.

In response to the interrogators' questions, the intelligence officer in Gilboa prison said that if he did not see a stranger, Zakariya al-Zubaidi asked to move to the cell of the prisoners of jihad, because they were his comrades from the Jenin camp, and that he was a familiar figure and they were all his friends, but this was the first time that he asked to change the cell.

The officer stated that he had not received any information, or that there were no hints of the possibility of the prisoners escaping.

Investigations show that from the moment of escape until the emergency measures were activated inside the prison, more than an hour passed, and until it was discovered that the prisoners had escaped, there was another half hour, and the prisoners at that time had crossed the entire area.

The deputy commander of the shift said that night, since he received a call at about three, that a driver saw 3 people near the guard towers, I asked to call him to provide more clarifications, and after I heard exactly what he saw, I decided to activate the emergency mode by sounding the sirens, and I took Some guards are with me on the tour, and we started scanning around and inside the prison. Each guard was counting in his wing alone. When they reached Ward 2 and Cell No. 5, the prisoners did not respond to the jailer. At that time, they informed me of that, and I ran to the place with other guards. I opened the cell and entered inside, and I saw bags. On the beds, and there was no prison, and I opened the bathroom door and found the tunnel hole, and immediately reported their escape

Another guard recounted the first moments when it became clear that the prisoners had escaped: "Cher...the cell screamed empty! There are no prisoners!...They all ran away."

Investigations revealed that the 4 cameras that were installed around the prison only recorded the escape process, but no one monitored it, because the observer was watching other screens through which he made sure that the guards were performing their work as required inside the prison.

According to the investigations, during the time the tunnel was dug, a total of 27 searches were carried out in Cell No. 5 in Wing 2, from which the prisoners escaped, and according to a senior Shin Bet officer, he did not find anything, and some of the prisoners who escaped, including Mahmoud Al-Ardah, as well as those who participated in the excavations, such as Iyad Jaradat, signed reports to the prison guards that the cells were intact, and that there was nothing in them.

It was supposed to conduct a comprehensive search in the cells shortly before the escape, but this was postponed by a decision from the northern region due to logistical problems.

According to Haaretz, the formed governmental committee will continue its deliberations in the coming days and present a final report on its findings in the coming months.

Sher testified, that she worked according to procedure, and every half hour she entered the cells in the ward, and that all the prisoners were in their cells.

According to the investigations, Cell No. 5 was supposed to be under strict surveillance due to the presence of two prisoners who were identified by the prison intelligence officer as being at high risk of escape.

That night, at 1:30, as the prisoners were deep in the tunnel and on their way out of the prison, Cher had signed in her operations diary that she had done an audit of the ward focusing on the prisoners in Cell 5, and that everything was OK. And at two o'clock she repeated that and confirmed that there was nothing exceptional, and she repeated that at 2:30, and at 3 o'clock in the morning, and while the six prisoners were on their way to Kafr Na'ura at around 4:10 o'clock, Shere returned to write an hour before the announcement of about Emergency, reached Cell No. 5 and six prisoners were not found.