Six Palestinian prisoners, including a former leader of the armed wing of the Fatah movement, escaped Monday before dawn from a prison in northern Israel, via a tunnel dug under a sink, local authorities said.
In the wake of this rare escape, which took place around 3 a.m. local time (midnight GMT) in Gilboa prison, where hundreds of Palestinians are being held, Israeli police launched a massive manhunt.
The army has provided the police with aerial observation means and prepared its troops to intervene if necessary in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.
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Israeli authorities have not disclosed the identity of the escapees, but the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an organization based in the West Bank, has identified them. Among them is Zakaria al-Zoubeidi, who until 2007 was head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah under President Mahmoud Abbas. In a statement, Islamic Jihad, one of the main Palestinian armed movements, called the escape "a heroic act." In 2007, Zakaria al-Zoubeidi, a resident of the Palestinian refugee camp Jenin in the West Bank, pledged to lay down his arms in exchange for an agreement with Israel to remove him from its list of wanted Palestinians. But the Israeli authorities later reneged on this agreement,the Israeli internal security service Shin Beth claiming that this Palestinian had been involved in "various attacks". The man was arrested and imprisoned in 2019.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the escape "a very serious incident" and indicated that he was regularly informed about the hunt for fugitives, as Israel began the Jewish holiday season on Monday evening, starting with the New Year Rosh Hashanah.