During the past two weeks, the Palestinian scene has been overshadowed by the operation of the 'Tunnel of Freedom' which was carried out in the sixth of September. Tension arose inside and outside the occupation's prisons to include huge initiatives and protests in solidarity with the six prisoners who broke free from Gilboa.
The six Palestinian prisoners' escape from Gilboa prison was a tight slap to the Israeli occupation, which made great efforts to chase the prisoners. It harnessed potential and equipment with a cost of about more than $6 million a day. Even though it could re-arrest the prisoners after two weeks, the outcomes of the operation are still present in the Palestinian scene of struggle with the Israeli occupation.
It deliberately practices measures of suffocation and oppression against the Palestinian prisoners as a means of collective punishment. The measures ranged from the policy of repression, transmission, and inspection to closure of specific sections and reduction of prisoners' time to go out to the prison's yards. Thus, the prisoners had to take practical steps to protest. They decided to launch a comprehensive open hunger strike, and warned the Israeli occupation to end such violations within a period of time.
The Israeli occupation partially responded to some of the prisoners’ demands. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Club stated that the administration of the occupation’s prisons alleviated some of its brutal policies towards the Palestinian prisoners after they had an agreement to return the detention conditions as they were before the operation of the 'Freedom Tunnel'. This reduced the tension and postponed the prisoners’ decision to start an open hunger strike and to break out in the prison.
Analysis and Insight
- Even though the Israeli occupation practices day-to-day repressive and oppressive measures against the Palestinian prisoners, they massively increased after the operation of the 'Freedom Tunnel' in a way that annoyed and suffocated the prisoners.
- The prisoners’ cause is an inclusive national cause that every Palestinian focus on. Moreover, it is one of the crucial and main issues in the path of the Palestinian resistance. Hence, the Israeli occupation fears exerting more pressure on the prisoners lest they break out in the prisons and inflame the situation, or slip towards a confrontation with Gaza and the West Bank.
- The Israeli occupation realizes that the national alignment about the prisoners’ cause, the support of the 'Freedom Tunnel' operation, and the popular protests which came out in Qalqilya, Silwad and Silwan to support the prisoners are among the Palestinian and national components.
- The brutal measures of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian prisoners in the occupation's prisons come within the context of the state to react and address any security situation similar to the operation of the 'Freedom Tunnel'. In addition, they are means of psychological deterrence and collective punishment of the prisoners.
- The Israeli occupation's government, headed by PM Neftali Bennett, adopts a general strategy based on the reduction of the level of tension to the minimum. Also, it avoids any chance of confrontation to preserve the fragile state of stability in the occupation's political system, complying with the US's desire to calm the general situations in the region.
Possible Scenarios:
Based on the abovementioned, it is expected that:
- The Israeli occupation will reduce its arbitrary measures against the Palestinian prisoners and return the general situation in the prisons as they were before the six prisoners broke free from Gilboa. This scenario is supported the occupation's desire to turn the chapter of this security breach and regain the relative state of stability.
- The Israeli occupation will continue to practice repressive measures against the Palestinian prisoners, increasing the state of tension and disturbance in the prisons. This scenario is probably weak amid the start of the Israeli occupation to retreat from several arbitrary measures imposed after the operation of 'Freedom Tunnel'.
In general, it is more likely to realize that the Israeli occupation seeks to return the conditions of detention as they were before the six Palestinian prisoners managed to escape. In addition, it wants to regain the state of calm. Hence, the situation in the Palestinian cities and villages in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners will return calm and the talks about the escape operation, which would be an inspiring operation in the Palestinian history, will end.