Israel’s defense minister expressed confidence Friday that Israeli security forces will capture six Arab terrorists who escaped recently from a prison in northern Israel, while acknowledging the difficulty of tracking the terrorists down in Judea and Samaria.
During a situational assessment held at the IDF’s Salem base in Samaria Friday morning, Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White) met with top army brass and representatives of the Israel Police, Border Police, Shin Bet internal security agency, and the Israel Prison Administration.
Afterwards, Gantz conducted a tour of the area surrounding the Jamalah checkpoint on the border between northern Samaria and pre-1967 Israel, west of the Gilboa prison where the prison break occurred.
At the end of the tour, Gantz said he was “impressed with the determined work” being done by the various security agencies, and expressed confidence that despite the difficulties in locating the six terrorists, Israel would capture them “sooner or later”.
“In the end, we will get our hands on the people who escaped from the prison, through extensive operations in the field, whether it is in the nearby area or in areas far away,” Gantz said. “We will continue these operations until we ensure the security of this area.”
“This cooperation will continue and in the end, sooner or later, we will apprehend those who need to be captured.”
At the same time, Gantz hinted that the manhunt could take time before it is successfully completed, and said Israel would be careful to avoid ‘disrupting’ life for Arab residents.
“We’re continuing our efforts in the field, but keep in mind that we’re looking for six people out of millions who are living here. We need to be able to deal with these six [terrorists] and their enablers without disrupting the other balances here in the field.”