VIDEO: Gilboa prison break hero Mohammad Arda freed

The Israeli Occupation Forces released 200 Palestinian prisoners serving high and life sentences, in exchange for the release of four female soldiers by the resistance in the Gaza Strip.

Among those freed was Mohammad Arda, one of the participants in the major escape from Gilboa Prison in 2021, known as the "Freedom Tunnel" operation, alongside five of his companions.

Mohammed Qassem Arda was born on September 3, 1982, in the town of Arraba, south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. He was arrested by the occupation on May 16, 2002, after being besieged in a building where he was hiding in Ramallah, central West Bank. He was sentenced to three life sentences and 20 years.

Arda was sentenced to three life sentences and 20 years for "membership and affiliation with the al-Quds Brigades," the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, and for participating in resistance operations against the Israeli occupation.

He served his sentence at "Shatta" prison in the occupied Jordan Valley, near the city of Beisan in central West Bank.

After the prison administration discovered an escape tunnel at "Shatta," al-Arda was transferred to solitary confinement for a year in 2014.

Later, he was moved to Gilboa Prison, where he successfully escaped on September 6, 2021, alongside prisoners Ayham Kamamji, Mahmoud Arda, Munadel Anfiyat, Yaqub Qadri, and Zakaria Zubeidi. They were re-arrested by the occupation on the 11th of the same month.

Following his re-arrest, the "Israeli" authorities imposed continuous isolation and mistreatment on Arda. Additionally, an "Israeli" court issued a further five-year sentence against him.