Two Jenin residents charged with aiding Gilboa Prison escapees

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The Judea and Samaria military prosecution filed indictments on Sunday against two Palestinian residents of Jenin for hiding two of the security prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison in September. According to the indictment, Abd al-Rahman Abu Ja’afar and Ihab Salama of Jenin provided shelter and food to prisoners Iham Kamamji and Monadal Infiat.

According to the indictment, Salama met with a man named Amin Abu Seriyeh on September 17 and the two drove together to the Jenin refugee camp, where the prisoners were waiting. At a certain point Abu Seriyeh got out of the vehicle and returned with Kamamji and Infiat who were masked. The prisoners asked Salama to take them to Abu Seriyeh’s home, which he did. At that point, according to the indictment, the two prisoners remained masked so that Salama didn’t know who they were. They drove to the Al Samran neighborhood in Jenin, and the two prisoners remained there for three days.

Salama and Abu Seriyeh returned to pick up the two men two days later, when Salama realized that they were the two escaped prisoners. He drove them to the Qabatiya refugee camp and then took Abu Seriyeh’s vehicle and started searching for a place for the prisoners to sleep. Kamamji and Infiat continued on their way with Abu Seriyeh in another car.

According to the indictment, at this point Salama met with Abu Ja’afar and asked him to let the prisoners stay in his home for about an hour. Abu Ja’afar agreed and shortly afterwards the two prisoners arrived at his home. The prisoners stayed in his house for about half an hour, when according to the indictment, Abu Ja’afar gave them “something to drink, a place to rest and company.”

Later, at the request of the prisoners, Ja’afar served as the lookout for Israeli security forces in the area, and identified the IDF and police forces surrounding the house. At that point Abu Ja’afar gave Kamamji and Infiat his cell phone, and they spoke with their families briefly before giving themselves up to the security forces.

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The indictment does not say where the prisoners stayed before contacting the two Palestinians. Amin Abu Seriyeh, who was mentioned in the indictment as the person who helped the prisoners, has yet to be located or detained by security forces.