How a bag of clothes helped catch the escaped Gilboa prisoners

The Gilboa escapees left their prison uniforms in a bag hidden in an orchard tree.

Police officers and prison guards at the scene of a prison escape of  six Palestinian prisoners, outside the Gilboa prison, northern Israel, September 6, 2021. (photo credit: FLASH90)
Police officers and prison guards at the scene of a prison escape of six Palestinian prisoners, outside the Gilboa prison, northern Israel, September 6, 2021.
(photo credit: FLASH90)

An orchard employee in Tel Yosef found prison uniforms hidden in a tree in the orchard, thus helping in the capture of two of the prisoners who escapes Gilboa Prison at the beginning of September.

Ten days after the escape, the man found a bag in a tree that contained prison uniforms that the prisoners had been wearing when they escaped. This find helped the Shin Bet and police investigators construct a route of the prisoners, which eventually led to their recapture.

"I happened to be passing by the tree and found the bag," the man told Ynet on Wednesday. "I didn't touch it. I told my boss, and he called the police. It's unbelievable to find something like that while you're working."

A Border Police commander, Jamal Rabah, told Ynet that "the clothes were found in trees 5 km away from the prison. They were hidden in the branches so that they wouldn't be seen from the ground."

 Ayham Kamamji, one of the six prisoners who escaped out of Israel's high security Gilboa prison, a few weeks ago is surrounded by Israeli police officers at the Magistrates court in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth, September 19, 2021. (credit: DAVID COHEN/FLASH 90)
Ayham Kamamji, one of the six prisoners who escaped out of Israel's high security Gilboa prison, a few weeks ago is surrounded by Israeli police officers at the Magistrates court in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth, September 19, 2021. (credit: DAVID COHEN/FLASH 90)

According to Ynet, the clothes were passed on from the Border Police to Shin Bet, and it was confirmed that the clothes were indeed the prisoners' uniforms.

On Wednesday morning, prosecutors announced their intention to the court to indict five further prisoners who assisted the six in their escape.