The PA Did Not Exchange Information With Israel on Recent Prison Escape
The Claim
Palestinian Authority contacted the Israeli Security Service, Shin Bet, to exchange information about the six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison.
News posted on
Emerging story
News accounts and social media users, including Twitter and Facebook, have circulated a claim attributed to the Israeli Channel Seven. The claim is that an official in the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) said that senior leaders in the Palestinian Authority’s security services had contacted the agency to exchange information about the six Palestinian prisoners who managed to escape from Gilboa recently.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar conducted an investigation and found that the claim was misleading. Israeli Channel Seven did not attribute the statement to an official in the Shin Bet but rather to a Palestinian journalist named Muhammad Majadleh, who lives in Israel and specializes in Israeli affairs.
Furthermore, the Palestinian Authority did not exchange information about the prisoners but merely expressed their readiness to cooperate with the Shin Bet as part of its security coordination with Israel. According to Majadleh, via Channel Seven, two senior members of the Palestinian security forces made the statements but did not mention who.
This claim follows the recent Gilboa prison escape in which six Palestinian prisoners managed to dig a tunnel and escape in the high-security Gilboa prison. Israeli security is currently investigating.
