Gilboa Prison Escapees Get Their Own Mural

Spoons are being brandished alongside traditional flags and banners as a Palestinian resistance symbol.

When the six Palestinian political prisoners escaped on September 6 from the high-security Gilboa prison, social networks shared images of a tunnel at the foot of a sink and a hole outside. The tunnel emerged just outside the prison walls directly under a watchtower.

Artists in Gaza paint a 40-meter long mural in honor of the escapees from Gilboa prison.

The mural illustrates a spoon, one tool used by the prisoners to dig the tunnel, and a cactus plant referring to the fruit one of the prisoners ate for the 1st time in 22 years.

“To escape from an Israeli prison is something each inmate thinks about.”

Nearly two weeks after the spectacular escape of six Palestinian prisoners from an Israeli high-security prison, the last two fugitives on the run were arrested in the occupied West Bank during an operation by Israeli forces.

Artist, Mohammed Abu Layla said to Roya News:

“This mural is a symbol of gratitude to Gilboa prisoners who snatched their freedom from the jailers by digging a tunnel with their spoons. After a long time in prison, they were able to breathe freely. The mural represents support and compassion to the six prisoners who carried out this escape operation.”

The inmates, who were being held for attacks against the Jewish state, became heroes among many Palestinians.

The artist said that the process of digging the tunnel and extracting the prisoners’ freedom constituted a shock to the Israel Occupation, and increased the importance of the prisoners’ issue for the Palestinian people and the whole world.

“Our message through this mural is to commit what happened to the memory of the Palestinian people, especially here in the center of the Gaza Strip where the young and old and be reminded of our heroic prisoners and their plight.”

Despite their recapture, the six men’s escape is seen as a morale-boosting victory for Palestinians everywhere, who view their feat as a devastating blow to Israel’s so-called security apparatus.