Six Palestinians have managed to escape from a high-security facility in northern Israel on Monday by digging a tunnel below the toilet in the cell, from which the prisoners crawled their way out of the facility, Al Jazeera reported.
The prison triggered a massive manhunt for the group.
The Israel Prison Service (IPS) said an alert was sounded at roughly 3am by locals who spotted “suspicious figures” outside the Gilboa prison in the country’s north.
The group includes Zakaria Zubeidi — a prominent former leader of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which was a part of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah political movement, the IPS confirmed in a statement.
The jailbreak occurred hours before Israel begins its High Holiday season, starting with Jewish New Year which begins at sundown.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in a statement called the escape “a serious incident” and said he was receiving regular updates about the search.
All 400 inmates detained at Gilboa over “security offences” are being relocated in case additional tunnels have been dug beneath the facility, according to the IPS.
