Public Security Minister Omer Barlev (Labor) on Monday vowed to leave no stone unturned in the search for the six terrorists who escaped from the Gilboa Prison in northern Israel.
“I woke up early in the morning with a phone call from the Commissioner of the Israel Prisons Service who had difficult news to share. As everyone already knows, six terrorists, security prisoners, escaped from Gilboa Prison during the night,” he wrote in a post on Facebook.
“You don't have to be a great genius to understand that there has been a serious failure here and many questions have been bothering us all since the news, and the most difficult of them all - where are those fugitives now?”
“I went to the Israel Police command post near Gilboa Prison and then to the prison itself. It became clear to me that Gilboa Prison was built in 2004, probably very quickly in light of the need to incarcerate detainees following the Second Intifada. In order to save time and money, the prison was built on top of a ‘structure’ that lifted it slightly above the ground and created some ditches under the prison floor.”
“In 2014 there was an attempted escape from the prison through the same underground passages. Following this, an investigating committee was established, and we must examine whether its conclusions and recommendations have been implemented. The terrorists who left the prison this morning took advantage of the same underground ditches and through them went beyond the prison wall, dug a little upwards and fled. What happened between the moment they left and the moment it became clear that prisoners had fled - we need to find out and we will find out.”
“I have just finished updating the Prime Minister, who has been in touch with me from the first moment the news of the escape became known.”
“With the ringing of the first sirens in Gilboa Prison, a chase began. The IPS is currently investigating the incident with the goal of getting to the root of the serious problem. Such things cannot happen. And we will not be satisfied with a simple investigation of the incident.”
“Our security forces, led by the Israel Police and assisted by the IDF and the Shin Bet, are now all busy and invested in the effort to find the fugitives. We will leave no stone unturned - and find them,” concluded Barlev.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)