VIDEO. Israel: four of six Palestinian escapees arrested

Four of the six Palestinians who fled an Israeli high-security prison were captured in the north of the country, days after their spectacular escape.

Since their escape Monday morning from the maximum security prison of Gilboa, in the north of Israel, via a tunnel dug under a sink and leading outside the penitentiary, the Israeli authorities carry out a manhunt in Israel and in Occupied West Bank, home of the fugitives where the army deployed reinforcements.

And analyzes and rumors were flowing about their possible exit from the country, crossing the border with neighboring Jordan.

But four of the fugitives were arrested in northern Israel, some 30 kilometers from the prison.

Read alsoIsrael: two other Palestinian detainees, who had escaped, were captured

Late Friday evening, police announced the arrest in Nazareth, the main Arab city in northern Israel, of two Islamic Jihad operatives: Yaqoub Qadri, 48, and Mahmoud Abdullah Ardah, 45, who has spent the last 25 years in prison. And early Saturday morning, Israel announced that it had captured two more fugitives: Zakaria al-Zoubeidi, the former head of the armed wing of the secular Fatah party in the Jenin camp and the best known of the six escapees, and Mohammad Ardah, a member of Islamic Jihad.

The two men were arrested by special forces "while they were hiding in a parking lot" in the Arab village of Shibli Umm al-Ghanam, located about ten kilometers east of Nazareth, police said. Israeli forces had launched a massive search operation with the army, police and security services to get hold of the six Palestinians since their spectacular escape.