Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Zakaria Zubeidi

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades

Israel-Palestine

20040614

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israeli forces arrest Fatah-linked terror operative in Jenin refugee camp

2023-09-10

[IsraelTimes] IDF says Tanzim member Muhammad Naghnaghiya aided in carrying out series of West Bank shootings in recent months

Israeli forces raided the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Wednesday morning, for the second time in days, arresting a suspected terror operative partially associated with the Paleostinian Authority’s ruling Fatah party.

Muhammad Naghnaghiya, a veteran member of the mostly dormant Tanzim terror group, was detained for allegedly aiding in executing a series of shooting attacks in the West Bank in recent months, according to the military.

Members of the Border Police’s undercover West Bank unit converged on a building in the Jenin refugee camp and nabbed Naghnaghiya, after receiving intelligence on his whereabouts from the Shin Bet security agency.

The Israel Defense Forces said that during the raid, Paleostinian button men shot at the forces, who returned fire.

Naghnaghiya was handed over to the Shin Bet for further questioning.

Tanzim, an armed militia founded in 1995 and loosely affiliated with the PA’s ruling Fatah party, was a key player in violence at the start of the Second Intifada in 2000.

Paleostinian media on Wednesday published a photo from the early 2000s showing Naghnaghiya with notorious terror commander Zakaria Zubeidi in the Jenin refugee camp.

Zubeidi, a senior commander in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was released from Israeli prison in a 2007 amnesty deal, but was rearrested a decade later. Exactly two years ago, on September 6, 2021, while still awaiting trial, Zubeidi fled Gilboa Prison — along with five other high-risk Paleostinian security prisoners — in an escape that transfixed Israelis and Paleostinians for weeks. They were all later rearrested.

The raid on Wednesday morning came less than two days after Israeli forces entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest three members of the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terror group.

Violence has surged across the West Bank over the past year and a half, with a rise in Paleostinian shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and troops, near-nightly arrest raids by the military, and an uptick in Dire Revenge attacks by krazed killer Jewish settlers against Paleostinians.

The IDF said Wednesday morning that troops detained nine wanted Paleostinians during overnight raids elsewhere in the West Bank, with festivities in some areas.

Paleostinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank since the beginning of the year have left 27 civilians and three soldiers dead, and several others seriously maimed.

According to a tally by The Times of Israel, 180 West Bank and East Jerusalem Paleostinians have been killed during the same period — the vast majority of them during festivities with security forces or while carrying out attacks, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under unclear circumstances, including by armed Israeli settlers.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF confirms nabbing terror operative during daylight raid in Jenin

2023-02-13

[IsraelTimes] The military confirms that Israeli troops arrested Jabril Zubeidi during an operation in Jenin today.

In a joint statement with the Border Police and Shin Bet, the Israel Defense Forces says Zubeidi turned himself over to undercover officers and soldiers who carried out the daytime raid. The statement describes Zubeidi as a local operative with the Fatah-linked Tanzim terror group and says he’s been involved in attacks on Israel forces.

It alleges he also helped plan attacks and cites his suspected involvement in the snatching of an Israeli Druze teenager’s body after he was killed in a car crash.

That’d be 17-year-old Tiran Fero last November, a very strange decision on their part.

The remains were ultimately returned.

The IDF says Israeli soldiers returned fire after being shot at in Jenin, and also had explosives and rocks hurled toward them. The military adds that troops found ammunition in a car while carrying out searches.

It also says it’s aware of Paleostinian reports of injuries, as the PA’s health ministry says three people were seriously hurt by Israeli fire. No Israeli forces were maimed.

Earlier:

Daytime clashes between Israeli troops, Palestinian gunmen reported in Jenin

[IsraelTimes] Daytime shootouts are reported in Jenin, with Israeli forces clashing with Paleostinians as they enter the northern West Bank city.

According to reports, the Israeli troops were seeking to arrest Jibril Zubeidi, the brother of imprisoned terror chief Zakaria Zubeidi.

Footage on social media shows a column of armored Israeli vehicles in Jenin.

There is no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.

PA says 14-year-old died of wounds sustained in Jenin clashes

Unfortunately, he was led into danger by his elders, and now he is dead. Still, the Palestinian Authorities will pay his family a hefty sum to reward them for producing such killable offspring for the cause.

[IsraelTimes] The Paleostinian Authority Health Ministry says a teenager has died as a result of wounds sustained during festivities with Israeli troops in Jenin earlier.

The ministry identifies the teen as 14-year-old Qusai Radwan Waked.

Two other Paleostinians were seriously hurt during the festivities.

It was not clear to what extent the teen was participating in the festivities, but the IDF said troops had returned fire at button men who were shooting at them as they were arresting a wanted terror operative.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Terror fighter killed near Jenin helped plan abduction of Israeli’s body — report

2022-12-02

[IsraelTimes] Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
commander Mohammed Ayman Saadi said to have been present when button men snatched Druze teen Tiran Fero’s body from hospital, directed talks that led to its release

A senior Paleostinian terror operative killed during overnight festivities with Israeli troops near Jenin helped criminal mastermind the recent kidnapping of Israeli teenager Tiran Fero’s body from a hospital in the West Bank city, according to a report Thursday.

Fero, a 17-year-old member of the Druze minority, was critically injured in a car crash in Jenin and taken to a hospital there, where he died and his body was snatched by unidentified button men.

Mohammed Ayman Saadi, a field commander for Paleostinian Islamic Jihad, was present during last week’s abduction, the Ynet news site reported. He was involved in the act’s planning and in the decision where to hide the body, and directed the negotiations with the Paleostinian Authority to release it, the report said.

Those talks, coupled with Israeli threats and diplomatic efforts, led to the teenager’s body being released some 30 hours later. He was buried shortly after in a funeral attended by thousands, on what would have been his 18th birthday.

Security officials have said the suspects sought the release of Paleostinians imprisoned by Israel or the bodies of deceased Paleostinian gunnies being held by Israel in exchange for Fero, who was a senior in high school.

Along with Saadi, Na’im Zubeidi from the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was killed during the pre-dawn raid near Jenin. Zubeidi is a cousin of Zakaria Zubeidi, a notorious al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist who criminal masterminded attacks during the Second Intifada and managed to briefly escape from Israeli prison last year.

A report last week said the head of the gang that kidnapped Fero’s body was related to Zakaria Zubeidi, but he was affiliated with PIJ. Various armed factions are known to work together in Jenin against the Israel Defense Forces.

Photos Thursday from the funeral procession in Jenin for Zubeidi and Saadi showed both their bodies draped in PIJ flags.

A joint statement on the raid by the IDF and Shin Bet security agency — which described Saadi and Zubeidi as senior terror operatives in their 20s who served time in Israeli jails for security offenses — did not mention the recent kidnapping.

According to the statement, Saadi was a "prominent PIJ military operative" responsible for a series of shooting attacks against troops, and arming other operatives, under the direction of the PIJ leadership.

The statement said Zubeidi was also responsible for numerous shootings at Israeli forces in the West Bank.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

2 terror group fighters killed in clashes with IDF during raid of Jenin refugee camp

2022-12-01

[IsraelTimes] Casualties identified as Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members; Jenin hospital declares state of emergency due to large number of maimed in raid

Two Paleostinian terror group fighters were killed in heavy festivities with Israeli troops that broke out during a pre-dawn IDF raid of the northern West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli raid was reportedly initiated in order to arrest several residents suspected of involvement in terror activity. While multiple Paleostinians were said to have been apprehended, troops came under heavy fire and responded with gunshots of their own.

Paleostinian media reported that as many as 20 people were maimed at varying degrees, and the hospital in Jenin declared a state of emergency, urging locals to come and donate blood.

There were no immediate reports of any maimed Israeli soldiers.

The casualties were identified as Na’im Zubeidi from the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Mohammed Ayman Saadi from Paleostinian Islamic Jihad, though the various armed factions are known to work together in Jenin against the IDF.

Both of the killed button men were in their 20s but had already served time in Israeli jail for security offenses. Zubeidi was a relative of Zakaria Zubeidi, a notorious al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist who criminal masterminded terror attacks during the Second Intifada and managed to briefly escape from Israeli prison last year.

In a statement early Thursday, an Islamic Jihad front man vowed to extract a price against Israel for the "heinous crime."

Hundreds of Jenin residents were filmed taking part in a funeral procession for one of the killed fighters that departed from the city’s hospital.

The Jenin refugee camp has been identified as a terror hotbed by the IDF, which says it has been forced to operate widely in the town that is in Paleostinian Authority-controlled Area A of the West Bank since the PA has lost control in the area. Ramallah maintains that the Israeli raids only further harm its legitimacy in the West Bank though.

The pair killed early Thursday morning were the seventh and eighth Paleostinians killed in the West Bank in less than three days.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Daoud Zubeidi, brother of jailed terror chief, dies of wounds from battle with IDF

2022-05-16

“Roooosebuuuuud.”
“He’s dead, Jim.”

[IsraelTimes] Zubeidi was taken to an Israeli hospital after his condition deteriorated; terror groups threatened to ’open the gates of hell’ should he come to harm.

Daoud Zubeidi, the brother of notorious terror chief and Gilboa prison escapee Zakaria Zubeidi, has died of wounds he sustained during a shootout with Israeli soldiers, the Paleostinian Authority Health Ministry said Sunday.

Zubeidi, 40, was among 13 Paleostinian button men reportedly injured Friday in fierce exchanges of fire with Israeli troops in and around the city of Jenin in the West Bank, during an arrest operation carried out by police special forces and the Israeli military.

After he was critically maimed in the shootout on Friday, Zubeidi was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but when his condition deteriorated, he was transferred to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

Paleostinian terror groups in Jenin — including both the loosely Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
’s al-Quds Brigades — threatened to "open the gates of hell" should Zubeidi come to harm while in Israeli custody.

Yeah, yeah. Whatevs.

"Any harm to the life of Daoud al-Zubeidi will open the fire of hell in the face of the occupation," masked button men apparently affiliated with the al-Quds Brigades read out in a statement on Saturday.

Israeli police commando Noam Raz, 47, was killed during the same shootout on Friday. Mourners carried Raz’s coffin to the police cemetery on Mount Zion for burial on Sunday in a private funeral, away from the press.

Zubeidi’s brother Zakaria is notorious for criminal masterminding terror attacks during the Second Intifada. A child actor who turned to violence, Zakaria Zubeidi became a senior commander in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He frequently gave interviews to Israeli media and became a familiar face to the Israeli public.

In 2007, the Shin Bet security service and the Paleostinian Authority reached an amnesty deal for thousands of Paleostinians who had fought against Israel during the wave of violence. Zakaria Zubeidi was one of them, and founded a so-called "Freedom Theater" in Jenin with a director of both Jewish and Arab Israeli heritage, Juliano Mer-Khamis.

Over a decade later, Israeli forces apprehended Zakaria Zubeidi, accusing him of having resumed his terror activities. The Shin Bet security service later said Zubeidi had confessed to two shooting attacks on buses outside the Beit El settlement in the central West Bank in November 2018 and January 2019 that maimed three people.

While still awaiting trial in September 2021, Zubeidi fled Gilboa jail — along with five other high-risk Paleostinian security prisoners — in an escape that transfixed Israelis and Paleostinians for weeks.

The six prisoners — five of them members of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad, along with Fatah commander Zubeidi — made their way out through their cell’s drainage system and an empty space underneath the prison.

Four of the prisoners, including Zubeidi, were captured in northern Israel within the first week, while the other two made their way into the northern West Bank city of Jenin and hid out there until their arrest on September 19.

Israel has recently stepped up its operations in the West Bank and especially in the Jenin area, from which several Lions of Islam behind recent deadly attacks carried out in Israel hailed. The violence has left 19 dead in central Israeli cities since March 22, in the bloodiest wave of terrorism in years.

Around 30 Paleostinians were killed by Israeli forces in the same period; some perpetrated the attacks, while others died during ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful festivities. Still others were uninvolved civilians, such as al-Jazeera journalist Shirin Abu Akleh, who died under disputed circumstances in Jenin on Wednesday.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Police commando killed during fierce gunfights with Palestinians in Jenin area

2022-05-14

[IsraelTimes] Sgt. Maj. Noam Raz, 47, dies of wounds after being airlifted to hospital; video shows security forces surrounding home of Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
suspect, firing missile toward building

A police commando who was seriously maimed during fierce exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Paleostinian button men in the northern West Bank on Friday morning has died of his wounds, police said

The officer was named as 47-year-old Sgt. Maj. Noam Raz, a 23-year veteran of the elite Yamam counterterror unit.

Raz "fell this morning during a fight with armed bully boyz who opened fire on our forces during an operation in the village of Burqin near Jenin. During the battle he was maimed and evacuated by helicopter to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, where he was declared dead," police said.

Raz, a founder and resident of the settlement Kida in the West Bank, leaves behind a wife and six children. Police hailed him as an experienced fighter who had "taken part in hundreds of operations to prevent terror, risked himself and saved lives."

He was a brave, professional and humble fighter," the statement said.

Raz was hit as forces were wrapping up an operation that included raids on terror suspects’ homes. A senior officer in the military’s Central Command said the amount of gunfire directed at troops on Friday was "indescribable."

The Israel Defense Forces earlier acknowledged that forces from the military and Shin Bet as well as Yamam were operating in Burqin in order to arrest a number of suspects.

"During the operation, Israeli forces fired at armed bully boyz who opened heavy fire and threw explosives toward them... As part of the operation, forces used various special measures to arrest a suspect who barricaded himself inside his home and eventually surrendered together with his brother," a joint statement issued by police and the IDF read.

According to the IDF, five suspects were arrested in the West Bank overnight and this morning, and illegal weapons were seized in the city of Hebron.

Military officials said the suspects who were arrested in the Jenin area were responsible for shooting attacks at troops in recent weeks.

The Paleostinian Authority Health Ministry reported 13 hurt, including one critically, in the Jenin fighting.

Footage on social media showed masked Paleostinians firing rifles in the direction of Israeli soldiers, as heavy gunfire could be heard.

Paleostinian reports said Israeli forces surrounded the home of a suspect and called on everyone inside to surrender. The Islamic Jihad terror group identified the suspect, Mohammad al-Dab’i, as a member of its military wing.

Video showed an Israeli soldier firing a shoulder-launched missile at the home, with smoke then seen rising from the building.

A separate clip showed the house on fire. It was unclear if anyone was inside.

The suspect’s father later told Paleostine TV that his son was arrested after "hours of siege."

Clashes were also reported in the nearby Jenin refugee camp.

Amid the gunbattles, Islamic Jihad spokesperson Tariq Izz al-Din urged all Paleostinians and gangs to "defend the Jenin refugee camp."

One of the Paleostinian maimed was named as Daoud Zubaidi. His brother, Zakaria Zubeidi, is a convicted terror leader who last year beat feet from Gilboa Prison for a week before being recaptured. Daoud Zubaidi was later taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment, according to the Ynet news site. He was listed at death's door.

Several Paleostinian bully boyz behind recent deadly attacks that left 19 dead hailed from Jenin and its environs. Israeli forces have been carrying out raids in the area.

Another Times of Israel article adds:

Police Chief Kobi Shabtai hails Sgt. Maj. Noam Raz, who was killed in a battle with Death Eaters near Jenin this morning, as a hero who recently saved the life of a comrade.

"We bow our heads in the memory of Noam Raz z"l who fell in an exchange of fire with terrorists," says Shabtai.

Noam, was a dedicated husband, an exemplary father and one of the best fighters in the Israel police," he says.

He revealed that Raz, who was a paramedic in the elite Yamam counterterror unit, had recently saved the life of a seriously maimed comrade during previous festivities in Jenin in recent weeks.

"Heroism and values were inherent in his character and operational activity in the Yamam," he says.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

PA arrests three Palestinians in Jenin, including escaped Gilboa prisoner's son

2022-01-08

[JPost] Gunmen took to the streets of the refugee camp to protest the arrest, with some opening fire.

Palestinian security forces arrested three young Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp, including the son of Zakaria Zubeidi, one of the terrorists who escaped from Gilboa prison, Hebrew media reported early Saturday morning.

The three Palestinians reportedly resisted arrest, so police detained them by force.

Reacting to documentation of the arrest, gunmen took to the streets of the refugee camp in protest, with some opening fire. Palestinian Authority (PA) officials from Ramallah have been working with field activists in the refugee camp to calm the area, according to Haaretz.

Zakaria Zubeidi was the former Jenin chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah’s armed wing, and later made recent headlines after escaping prison in September along with five other terrorists by digging a tunnel. All of the inmates were eventually recaptured.

Zubeidi is reportedly a "symbol" of the Second Intifada, which erupted in September 2000, and was even praised by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah upon his escape from Gilboa prison.

Had Zubeidi returned to his home in the Jenin Refugee Camp, Israel would never have been able to recapture him, masked gunmen and political activists said in September.

Zubeidi was reportedly in close contact with several Israelis, including journalists covering Palestinian affairs, and briefed them on the latest developments in Jenin.

According to both Palestinian and Israeli sources, Zubeidi had survived at least four assassination attempts by Israel. He and his men were known to terrorize and intimidate Palestinians in the Jenin area.

In February 2019, he was arrested by the IDF and charged with carrying out at least two shooting attacks on civilian buses in the West Bank.

Another incident in Jenin last month involved the death of a 21-year-old nursing student at Arab American University, which sparked protests in which demonstrators clashed with PA security forces.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Islamic Jihad inmates charged with setting fire to cells during jailbreak riot

2021-10-08

[IsraelTimes] Two prisoners in Ramon jail placed mattresses in the shower room, set them alight, after wardens tried to move security prisoners between facilities in wake of Gilboa prison escape.

Prosecutors on Thursday charged two members of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group with setting fires in the Ramon prison in southern Israel last month, amid the escape of six Paleostinian security prisoners.

Omar ar-Roub, who is serving a life sentence, and Hammouda Zaika placed mattresses in a prison shower room, set them on fire using a lighter, which resulted in damage to the walls of the toilet cubicle, as well as the cellblock, according to the indictment.

The unrest in the prison, as well as others around the country, came as the Israel Prisons Service issued new restrictions on inmates following the escape of six security prisoners from a high-security Gilboa prison on September 6.

At the time, the Prisons Service began to move PIJ inmates between facilities following the jailbreak, as five of the escapees were members of the terror group.

Two cells in different wings of Ramon prison were set on fire on September 8, according to the IPS. Both blazes were brought under control after a short while.

Earlier that day, at least seven cells were set on fire in Ketziot prison, also located in Israel’s Negev desert, by members of the PIJ after they had refused to be moved between sections.

Prosecutors on Thursday said that if the prison guards had not managed to extinguish the fire quickly, "the fire could have spread throughout the prison and the incident could have ended in terrible disaster and loss of life."

The six prisoners — five of them members of the PIJ, along with notorious Fatah terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi — beat feet from Gilboa Prison, making their way out through their cell’s drainage system and an empty space underneath the prison. They had reportedly begun digging in November, using plates, panhandles, building debris, and part of a metal hanger.

Four of them were captured in northern Israel within the first week, but two others made their way into the northern West Bank city of Jenin and hid out there until their arrest on September 19.

The escape exposed a series of lapses at the prison, including a failure to learn lessons from previous escape attempts and several operational blunders such as unmanned watchtowers and sleeping guards.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Last two escaped prisoners arrested in Jenin, ending manhunt

2021-09-19

[JPost] appears the Paleo actual non-hamas residents wanna just get on with their (semi-prospering) lives?

I guess we’re all glad that’s over, with all the bad guys rounded up.

Palestinians clashed with the Israeli forces who entered Jenin to arrest the two prisoners.

The last two remaining prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison earlier this month, Munadil Nafayat and Iham Kahamji, were arrested on Saturday night by Israeli forces in Jenin, putting an end to the nearly two-week-long manhunt.

The arrest was made by the IDF, Shin Bet and police special forces based on intelligence from the Shin Bet. Israeli forces surrounded the house where the prisoners were hiding and the two prisoners surrendered without any struggle and were transferred to the Shin Bet for questioning. Two Palestinians who helped the two prisoners were also arrested by Israeli forces.

Four of the six prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison, Zakaria Zubeidi, Mahmoud Ardah, Mohammed Qadri and Mohammed Ardah, were captured by security forces in and near Nazareth last weekend.

Armed clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday night, after large numbers of Israeli forces entered the city, according to Palestinian reports. At least one Palestinian has been wounded, according to the reports. No injuries have been reported among Israeli forces.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Fugitives begged for ride from Arab town to West Bank, but were denied

2021-09-13

[IsraelTimes] Searches now focused on Jezreel Valley and Jenin, with officials said concerned that West Bank raid would complicate efforts to capture them alive, possibly provoke escalation

After breaking out of the maximum-security Gilboa prison earlier this week, the six Paleostinian runaways headed on foot for the nearby Arab town of Na’ura, some 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) from the jail, where they begged several residents to drive them to the city of Jenin in the West Bank, but were refused, Hebrew media reported Sunday.

Citing details leaked from the Shin Bet interrogation of the four escapees who have been recaptured, particularly from notorious terror commander Zakaria Zubeidi, the reports detailed the runaways’ first actions in the first hours after the escape.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Police catch 2 4 Palestinians who broke out of prison in northern Israel

2021-09-11

[Ynet] Spokeswoman says Yaqoub Qadiri and Mohammad al-Arida - both members of Islamic Jihad - were located near the Arab city of Nazareth; local woman alerted police after fugitives asked her for food; Palestinians in Gaza fire rockets at south shortly after capture.

Israeli security forces captured two of six Palestinian security prisoners who broke out of a high-level detention facility earlier this week, at the tail end of an intense five-day manhunt, a police spokeswoman confirmed on Friday.

The six Palestinians tunneled out of the Gilboa Prison on Monday, setting off a furious manhunt across Israel and in the West Bank. The escape has exposed major flaws in Israel's prison service and set off days of angry criticism and finger pointing.

The two escapees were captured late Friday on Mount Precipice near the Arab city of Nazareth in northern Israel, not far from where the prison they escaped from is located, the spokeswoman said in a statement.

The two fugitives were identified as Yaqoub Qadiri, 49, and Mohammad al-Arida, 39 - both members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group.

The pair were caught after a local resident alerted the police, telling them two "Palestinian workers" asked her for food and had earlier been rampaging through local trash containers.

The two were not armed at the time of their arrest and did not resist it. They were taken in for questioning by the Shin Bet domestic security agency.

A video circulating on social media showed Israeli police putting a man into the backseat of a police vehicle and asking the suspect for his name.

The man, wearing jeans and green T-shirt, calmly identifies himself as Qadiri and answers "yes" when asked whether he is one of the escapees. Qadiri was serving two life sentences for attempted murder and bomb planting.

Four other prisoners remain at large, including Zakaria Zubeidi - a former commander of the mainstream Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, who was convicted in several deadly attacks and was serving a life sentence before escaping.

All of the prisoners are from the nearby city of Jenin in the West Bank and all but one belong to PIJ.

Shortly after their capture, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, believed to be from the Islamic Jihad, fired rockets at Israeli communities near the border.

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

That’s an important detail that is worth emphasizing - the police got the lead for the arrests of the 2 fugitive from a family of Israeli Arabs that called to say that two illegal residents came to ask for food https://t.co/kawjraVgnQ
— Nadav Pollak (@NadavPollak) September 10, 2021

Update from The Times of Israel at 1:30 a.m. ET:

Two more Palestinian security prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison were recaptured in the early hours of Saturday morning, including notorious terror commander Zakaria Zubeidi.

The second recaptured prisoner was named by police as Mohammed al-Arida, the younger brother of the reported mastermind of the jailbreak.

Four of the six escapees are now back in Israeli custody, as searches continued for the remaining two fugitives, Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat.

Four of the six fugitives who broke out earlier this week were in jail for life in connection with deadly attacks against Israelis. Zubeidi was in prison while on trial for two dozen crimes, including attempted murder. Another was held in administrative detention. All but Zubeidi are Islamic Jihad members.

Zubeidi and Al-Arida were detained by Israeli counter-terror police officers near the northern town of Shibli–Umm al-Ghanam. The two were captured at around 5 a.m. at a parking lot used by truck drivers.

An unnamed security official told Hebrew media that Zubeidi briefly tried to escape during the arrest operation, but was quickly overpowered.

“They found them hiding under the wheel of a truck,” Yusuf Kahili, a resident of the town, said to reporters. “I saw them. They looked scared, hungry and humiliated.”

According to Hebrew-language media reports, security officials increasingly believe the fugitives did not have outside assistance after their escape from the prison, noting none of the four were armed at the time of their capture.

The announcement of Zubeidi’s capture came after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with police and military officials for an assessment of the situation in northern Israel in the predawn hours of Saturday morning, an unusual step for the religiously-observant premier to take on the Jewish Sabbath.

The arrests of Zubeidi and al-Arida came just hours after two other escapees from the jailbreak were arrested in the northern town of Nazareth.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Six Palestinian prisoners — four of whom were serving life sentences — escaped from a high-security Israeli prison through an underground tunnel

2021-09-07

More about this story from yesterday.

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Six Palestinian prisoners — four of whom were serving life sentences — escaped from a high-security Israeli prison through an underground tunnel, launching a massive manhunt in the country just ahead of the Jewish new year.https://t.co/XYLHqB1HhY
— Axios (@axios) September 6, 2021

Six Paleostinian prisoners — four of whom were serving life sentences — beat feet from a high-security Israeli prison through an underground tunnel, launching a massive manhunt in the country just ahead of the Jewish new year.

Five of the six escapees were affiliated with the Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
movement, and one was Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent figure with the Fatah organization. Israeli officials said the prison break was a big failure of the prison authorities on the highest levels and are fearful of attacks or copycat prison breaks.

On Sunday night around 1:30 a.m. local time the six prisoners escaped through a tunnel that started in a pit under cell number 5 and ended 50 feet away on the other side of the prison walls.

Several years ago a group of Islamic Jihad prisoners tried to escape in the exact same way taking advantage of the fact the prison was built on big concrete posts which left open space under the cells. At the time they were caught before using the tunnel.

An initial investigation found the current escape took advantage of the same weaknesses in the building, some of which were never fully fixed. The prison intelligence had no information about any break out plans.

On Sunday, 24 hours before the escape one of the prisoners, Zakaria Zubeidi — a member of the Fatah organization — asked to switch cells and move to the cell where five Islamic Jihad prisoners were held.

The request was unusual but didn’t raise any suspicions. All of the six prisoners were originally from the city of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank — only 10 miles from the prison.

The Times of Israel adds:

The most infamous runaway is undoubtedly former Fatah commander Zakaria Zubeidi, who oversaw terror attacks against Israelis during the Second Intifada from his stronghold in Jenin. Zubeidi was responsible for numerous acts of terrorism, including a suicide kaboom in the heart of Tel Aviv that killed an Israeli woman.

Zubeidi has claimed his turn to terror came following the deaths of his mother and brother, who he says were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers during street battles in Jenin during the early days of the Intifada. The operation was a response to a wave of Paleostinian suicide kabooms inside Israel; many of the bombers had emerged from Jenin.

Zubeidi was also known for his close ties with some on the radical anti-Zionist Israeli left, who saw him as a potential partner. His relationship with anti-Zionist activist Tali Fahima — who later converted to Islam — was notorious; Fahima went to his Jenin home to act as a human shield to prevent the Israeli army from targeting him.

In 2007, the Shin Bet security service and the Paleostinian Authority reached an amnesty deal for thousands of Paleostinians who had fought against Israel during the wave of violence. Zubeidi was one of them, and founded a so-called "Freedom Theater" in Jenin with a director of both Jewish and Arab Israeli heritage, Juliano Mer-Khamis.

Over a decade later, Israeli forces apprehended Zubeidi, charging that he had resumed his terror activities. The Shin Bet security service later said Zubeidi had confessed to two shooting attacks on buses outside the Beit El settlement in the central West Bank in November 2018 and January 2019 that maimed three people.

When Zubeidi arrived in court in March 2019, his charge sheet was long: two counts of intentionally causing death — the military legal system’s equivalent of murder — as well as multiple counts of attempting to intentionally cause death, membership in a terrorist group, weapons sales, firing guns at people and preparing explosives.

Some of the offenses dated back to the Second Intifada, before the amnesty agreement. But the Shin Bet said that Zubeidi’s alleged participation in renewed shooting attacks nullified the amnesty agreement, opening him up to prosecution for his terrorist activities during the early 2000s as well.

Zubeidi’s trial is ongoing and he has yet to be formally acquitted, convicted, or sentenced.

In 2018 — before his arrest by Israel — Zubeidi completed a master’s degree at Birzeit University. His dissertation, "The Dragon and the Hunter," chronicled "pursuit in Paleostinian experience."

"The dragon outwitted the hunter," rejoiced Fatah official Mounir al-Jaghoub on his Twitter page after Monday’s escape.

‘NOT THE FIRST NOR THE LAST’
The other runaway Paleostinians are members of the Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group, all from the Jenin area.

Eham Kamamji, 35, from Kufr Dan, attacked and murdered 18-year-old Israeli Eliyahu Asheri, from the West Bank settlement of Itamar, in 2006. Kamamji, along with two accomplices, kidnapped and shot Asheri in the head at point-blank range.

Kamamji reportedly confessed to the crimes in court, expressing his pride in the murder.

"The teen I murdered was not a boy. He studied in an Israeli Air Force military college. I will not be the first nor the last, so long as the occupation continues," The Jerusalem Post reported from his 2007 sentencing hearing.

The al-Arida brothers — Mahmoud, 46, and Mohammad, 39 — were arrested in 1996 and 2002 for terror offenses. Both brothers, from Arraba near Jenin, are currently serving life sentences and are avowed members of Islamic Jihad.

Yaqoub Qadiri, 49, was arrested for planning terror attacks against Israelis, as well as for his membership in Islamic Jihad. Under Israeli military law, membership in a terror group on its own is a criminal offense that is punishable by years in prison.

The sixth and final detainee, Islamic Jihad member Munadil Nafayat, 26, is from the West Bank town of Yaabad, near Jenin. Nafayat, unlike his fellow runaways, had not been charged with a crime. Rather, he was held under Israel’s practice of administrative detention, which allows it to imprison suspects without filing charges for security purposes.

Administrative detention is legal under international law, which recognizes its necessity in extreme situations. Nonetheless, human rights
...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you...
groups contend that Israel abuses it; the practice is mostly used against Paleostinians suspected of terrorism.

Nafayat’s current stint in Israeli jail began in 2019. But he had been held in administrative detention before, including a four-month stint in 2015, according to Paleostinian media reports.

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