- Title: Palestinians celebrate escape of six prisoners from Israeli prison
- Date: 6th September 2021
- Summary: ARRABA TOWN, WEST BANK (SEPTEMBER 6, 2021) (REUTERS) MOTHER OF MAHMOUD AL-ARADA, ONE OF THE ESCAPEES SITTING IN HER HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOTHER OF MAHMOUD AL-ARADA, ONE OF THE ESCAPERS, UMM MAHMOUD, SAYING: "I hope I will get a delightful news, not a harmful one. I hope that Mahmoud already escaped to another country, and now with good people who will take care of hi
- Embargoed: 20th September 2021 19:58
- Keywords: Israel Palestinians escape prisoners
- Location: JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, ARRABA TOWN, WEST BANK
- City: JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, ARRABA TOWN, WEST BANK
- Country: Palestinian Occupied Territory
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA002ETL1OP3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp celebrated on Monday (September 6) after six Palestinian prisoners broke out of a high-security Israeli prison, in what Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called a grave incident.
People gathered on the streets and handed out sweets in the hometown of one of the escapees.
Israeli police and the military had started a search after the escape from Gilboa prison in northern Israel.
Five of the fugitives belong to the Islamic Jihad movement and one is a former commander of an armed group affiliated with the mainstream Fatah party, the Prisons Service said.
Arik Yaacov, the service's northern commander, said the escapees appeared to have opened an hole from their cell toilet floor to access passages formed by the prison's construction.
The facility, about 4 km (2 miles) from the boundary with the occupied West Bank, is one of the highest-security jails in Israel and houses Palestinians convicted or suspected of anti-Israeli activities, including deadly attacks.
Four of the men were serving life sentences, a Palestinian prisoners organisation said.
The mother of one of the prisoners, Umm Mahmoud Al-Arada, said that she doesn't know where her son is, but hopes he has travelled to another country.
Several Palestinian factions hailed the jailbreak.
Bennett's office said he 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.
A police spokesman said security forces believed the fugitives might try to reach the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule, or the Jordanian border some 14 km (9 miles) to the east.
(Production: Roleen Tafakji, Yosri Al-Jamal) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None