These Are the Palestinian Jailbreakers That Have Put Israel on Red Alert

One buried a body in a cistern, another masterminded an attack on a Likud HQ. The six Palestinian militants who are on the run from Israeli authorities

Jack Khoury

Sep. 6, 2021

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Security forces near the tunnel exit outside Gilboa Prison, today. Credit: Gil Eliahu

Jack Khoury

Sep. 6, 2021

The six prisoners currently at large after escaping Gilboa prison overnight are Zakaria Zubeidi, Iham Kamamji, Monadal Infiat, Yakub Kadari and cousins Mahmoud and Mohammed Aradeh. The IDF, Shin Bet and police are holding a large scale search for them. Extensive military forces have set up roadblocks in the West Bank in an attempt to prevent them from fleeing to Jordan.

>> Six Palestinian prisoners escape Israeli prison, manhunt underway

>> How Israel's security failings enabled the jailbreak

The Palestinian fugitives

Zakaria Zubeidi

The 45-year-old is the most well-known inmate of the six. Zubeidi was behind the 2002 attack in the Likud branch in Beit She’an, in which six people were killed – as well as other cases. Zubeidi is a former commander of the Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade in the Jenin area. He was arrested in 2019 on suspicion of involvement of shootings in Beit El. Zubeidi was considered to be one of the most wanted men in the West Bank for many years: he lost his brother and mother in confrontations with the IDF and his house in Jenin was demolished. He previously said in an interview that he views terrorist attacks as the only way to confront Israel’s military supremacy.

Zakaria Zubeidi

Iham Kamamji

The 35-year-old resident of Kafr Dan in the Jenin Governorate was arrested in 2006 and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Eliyahu Asheri.

Kamamji, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, kidnapped 18-year-old Asheri from a hitchhiking station at the entrance to the settlement of Ofra in the West Bank. He shot Asheri in the head, then buried him in a cistern. The body was found in the al-Tira neighborhood in western Ramallah. Kamamji was also convicted of planning to carry out a huge suicide bombing attack using a car wired with nearly 100 kilograms of explosives.

Iham Kamamji

Yakub Kadari

The 49-year-old from the village of Bir al-Basha in the Jenin Governorate was convicted of planning and committing several attacks against Israelis as well as being a member of the military arm of the Islamic Jihad. He was imprisoned in 2003, and sentenced to two life sentences plus 35 years.

Yakub Kadari

Mahmoud Aradeh

The 46-year-old resident of Arraba in the Jenin Governorate is considered to be a senior figure in the Islamic Jihad’s military arm. He was arrested in 1996, convicted of carrying out attacks against Israelis and sentenced to life in prison.

Mahmoud Aradeh

Mohammed Aradeh

The 39-year-old, also from Arraba, was arrested in 2002 and was sentenced to three life sentences plus 20 years. He was a member of the Islamic Jihad's military wing in which he planned and carried out other terrorist attacks against Israelis. He had been in prison for 19 years before his escape.

Mohammed Aradeh