PRISON BREAK: SIX PALESTINIAN ESCAPE FROM HIGH-SECURITY ISRAELI PRISON

Mon 06 September 2021:

Six Palestinian prisoners have escaped from a high-security Israeli jail, according to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Following the breakout from Gilboa prison in northern Israel on Monday, Israeli police and the military launched a search.

According to the prisons department, five of them are members of the Islamic Jihad movement, while one is a former commander of an armed group linked with the mainstream Fatah party.

Arik Yaacov, the service’s northern commander, said the escapees appeared to have opened a hole from their cell toilet floor to access passages in the prison’s construction.

The facility, which is just two miles (4 kilometers) from the occupied West Bank’s border, is one of Israel’s most secure prisons, housing Palestinians convicted or suspected of anti-Israeli activity, including deadly attacks.

According to a Palestinian prisoners’ organization, four of the guys were serving life sentences.

WATCH | Six Palestinian prisoners have escaped from a high-security Israeli jail#Israel #Palestine #PrisonBreak #gaza pic.twitter.com/IPTDGMt13b

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) September 6, 2021

WATCH | Six Palestinian prisoners have escaped from a high-security Israeli jail#Israel #Palestine #PrisonBreak #gaza pic.twitter.com/sDDkMoqVe2

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) September 6, 2021

WATCH | Six Palestinian prisoners have escaped from a high-security Israeli jail#Israel #Palestine #PrisonBreak #gaza pic.twitter.com/mt0S7tx4kE

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) September 6, 2021

Several Palestinian factions hailed the jailbreak. “This great victory proves again that the will and determination of our brave soldiers inside the prisons of the enemy cannot be defeated,” said Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the Islamist militant group Hamas.

🔴 Distribution de bonbons dans la ville de #Gaza, en l’honneur des 6 prisonniers qui ont réussi à s’évader par un tunnel depuis la prison de détention de Gilboa. pic.twitter.com/yRiqmTmYxn

— MŌĦĀMĀƉ ƵȲĀƉⓂ (@hm__hm21) September 6, 2021

Bennett’s office said he had spoken with Israel’s internal security minister and “emphasised that this is a grave incident that requires an across-the-board effort by the security forces” to find the escapees.

A police spokesman said security forces believed the fugitives might try to reach the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule, or the Jordanian border about nine miles to the east.

Zakaria Zubeidi, a former commander of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the West Bank city of Jenin, was identified as one of the escapees by the prisons service. Between 2000 and 2005, the group carried out fatal attacks against Israelis during a Palestinian uprising.

(Input with agency)

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