Six Palestinian prisoners escape from Israeli prison

JERUSALEM: SEPT. 6 – Six Palestinian prisoners escaped from a prison in Israel on Monday, prompting a massive manhunt, Israeli authorities said.

The extremely rare break-out took place overnight in the Gilboa Penitentiary, a high-security jail for Palestinian prisoners in northern Israel, the police said in a statement.

Large police and army forces were searching for the prisoners in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, using helicopters and drones, the police said.

The six prisoners had apparently dug their way out. Police Northern District Commander Arieh Yaakov told the Hebrew-language Ynet news site that the prisoners apparently took advantage of a small shaft located under the floor of their cell and dug their way out.

“We are still investigating it,” he said.

Yaakov said that prisoners were moved to other prisons to avoid additional escape attempts.

Israel’s state-owned Kan Radio reported that the six were cellmates. One of them was identified as Zakaria Zubeidi, 46, a high-profile former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed group affiliated with the mainstream Fatah party. The other five are members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian movement.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement that he has been receiving constant updates on the incident. “It’s a serious incident that requires the effort of the entire system,” he said.

The Islamic Jihad said in a statement that it “will cause a severe shock to the Israeli security system and will constitute a severe blow to the army and the entire system in Israel.”

The incident shows “the struggle for freedom with the occupier is continuous and extended, inside prisons…,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement.

-Xinhua