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Israeli authorities have launched a manhunt after six Palestinian prisoners escaped from one of the country's most secure jails overnight.

Six Palestinian prisoners escape from Israeli Gilboa jail

The men are believed to have dug a hole in the floor of their cell at Gilboa prison, then crawled through a cavity and tunnelled beneath the outer wall.Officials were alerted by farmers who noticed them running through fields. The fugitives include a former leader of the militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade and five Islamic Jihad members. They escape through a tunnel shaft in the toilet that led out of the prison walls

Six Palestinian prisoners escape from Israeli Gilboa jail

An Israel Prison Service official described the escape as "a major security and intelligence failure". Palestinian militant groups hailed it as "heroic".
And this is what it looks like from cell 2 of Wing Five in Gilboa Prison. 

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The alarm was raised at Gilboa Prison, a high-security facility in northern Israel known as "The Safe", when authorities received reports from local farmers about "suspicious figures" in nearby agricultural fields.

When prison staff carried out a headcount at 04:00 (01:00 GMT), they found six inmates were missing.

The Palestinians are believed to have made their way out of the cell that they shared by digging a hole in the floor of their bathroom. The Jerusalem Post reported that they had used a rusty spoon that they hid behind a poster.

The hole led to a hollow space underneath the prison that was created during the facility's construction, when piles were sunk into the ground. An Israeli police commander described it as a "structural flaw".

The inmates are believed to have moved through the space to reach the prison's outer wall, then dug a tunnel that emerged in the middle of a dirt road just outside.

The Shin Bet security service said it believed the prisoners had been in contact with people outside the prison using a smuggled mobile phone and that they had been picked up in a car.

The six fugitives include Zakaria Zubeidi, a former commander of the Palestinian militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade in the West Bank city of Jenin, as well as five members of Islamic Jihad.

Four of the Islamic Jihad members were serving life sentences after being convicted of planning or carrying out attacks that killed Israelis, while the fifth had been held without charge for two years under a so-called administrative detention order, according to Israeli media.

Zubeidi was arrested by Israeli forces in 2019 on suspicion of involvement in a number of shooting attacks and is currently standing trial.

Israeli border police and army troops involved in the manhunt have reportedly set up road blocks to stop the men reaching the nearby occupied West Bank or Jordan, which is about 14km (nine miles) to the east of Gilboa prison.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke to Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev and "emphasised that this is a grave incident that requires an across-the-board effort by the security forces" to find the fugitives.

Islamic Jihad described the jailbreak as "heroic" and said it would "shock the Israeli defence system", while Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said it was a "great victory" that proves "the will and determination of our brave soldiers inside the prisons of the enemy cannot be defeated".

Six Palestinian prisoners escape from Israeli Gilboa jail

An initial investigation into the escape of six Palestinian prisoners who tunnelled out of a high-security Israeli prison shows that surveillance cameras recorded the moment the men exited the tunnel, but none of the guards in the control room noticed.

One of the guards at the Gilboa jail, who was on duty in the watchtower overlooking the tunnel opening, fell asleep during the escape, the probe – launched by Israel’s prison authority – revealed on Tuesday.

The Israeli prison authority has so far evacuated 90 Palestinian prisoners out of a total of 360 held in Gilboa – one of Israel’s most secure facilities. The prison will undergo an intensive inspection in the coming days for other tunnels that may have been dug by other detainees.

The tunnel appeared to have been dug from below a toilet in the cell, which was shared by the six men – four of whom were serving multiple life sentences, according to local media reports.

Security oversight’
The prisoners included Zakariya Zubeidi, 46, a former Fatah party leader in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, as well as five Palestinian Islamic Jihad members.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has warned Israel against harming the six men.

The other detainees were identified as: Monadel Yacoub Nafe’at, 26, Yaqoub Qassem, Yaqoub Mahmoud Qadri, 49, Ayham Nayef Kamamji, 35, and Mahmoud Abdullah Ardah, 46.

Prior to the incident, the Israeli prison service had classified the six men as “highly dangerous”, and labelled three of them as “highly likely to escape”.

Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the architectural blueprint for Gilboa prison had been shared online by a firm that was part of the prison’s construction, making it “accessible to the public”.

While it remains unclear whether the blueprint was used to assist the men in their escape, an official in the prison service said publishing the blueprint is a serious “security oversight”, Haaretz said.

The men were believed to have been headed for Jenin, where their families are based and where the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority wields little control.

Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, described the brazen escape as a victory against the Israeli security system.

Some of the men were held for involvement in attacks on Israelis during the Palestinian Intifada in the early 2000s. One was held under administrative detention – without charge – which is considered illegal under international law.

Israeli police said some 200 checkpoints have been erected throughout parts of Israel as part of efforts to track down the six men.

Israeli forces have also encircled the city of Jenin, and have been accused of “harassing” the families of the six men, Palestinian news agency Maan reported. Witnesses said checkpoints were installed and soldiers are checking identification documents of residents.

Maan also reported that Kamamji’s father Fouad and brother Majd were summoned by Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet – which is notorious for the controversial methods it uses against Palestinian prisoners. Fouad was asked to hand over his son and was told that his son would die if he did not turn himself in.