Six Palestinians including top ex-militant flee from Israeli jail, say officials

In a shocking development, at least six Palestinian nationals have escaped from a high-securityIsraeli jail on Monday. These inmates were members of militant groups, said the officials, as perreport ofIsrael's Kan public radio.

Five of the prisoners belonged to the Islamic Jihad movement and one was a former commander of a militant group affiliated with the mainstream Fatah party,the report said.A Palestinian prisoners organisation said that four of the men were serving life sentences.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has called it a grave incident.According to the Bennett's office, PM spoke 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.

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As per the report, the six inmates were cell mates and dug a tunnel beneath the sinkto flee the Gilboa prison in northern Israel. The security forces have launched a search operation to nab the culprits.

Service's northern commander Arik Yaacovsaid the escapees appeared to have opened an hole from their cell toilet floor to access passages formed by the prison's construction, Reuters reported.

The prison is about 4 km (2 miles) from the boundary with the occupied West Bank. It houses Palestinians convicted or suspected of anti-Israeli activities.

An Israel Prison Service statement on the incident said an alert was sounded at roughly 3 am when locals spotted "suspicious figures" in the area surrounding Gilboa Prison.

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A spokesman for the police said security forces believethe fugitives may try to reach the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-ruleor the Jordanian border, which is some 14 km (9 miles) to the east.

It also confirmed that the escapees included Zakaria Zubeidi, former head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the flashpoint city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Some Palestinian factions have 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," saidIslamist militant group HamasspokesmanFawzi Barhoum.

(With inputs from agencies)