Fourteen Fatah terrorists, including a commander, escaped from a jail in Shechem Thursday, apparently with the help of prison officials. The escape coincided with increasing pressure from elements in the PA to treat Hamas terrorists "with silk gloves," Voice of Israel government radio reported.
The prisoners who escaped turned themselves into the PA following a large IDF counter terrorist operation in Shechem. One of those who escaped is Mahdi Abu Ghazale, the commander of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades' Night Horsemen cell. Israeli defense officials warned the PA to re-arrest the terrorists within 24 hours or the army would try to hunt them down.
American officials have been counting on PA police, who they have trained, to prove that it is able to control terrorism, one of the American Roadmap conditions.