Palestinian jailbreakers sentenced to 5 more years for escape

Israeli court on Sunday sentenced six Palestinian prisoners to five more years in prison for tunneling out of their cell to escape a maximum-security prison in Israel in 2021, reported Xinhua.

The court found them guilty of "escaping custody" and fined each of them 5,000 shekels (about 1,490 U.S. dollars).

They were also sentenced to eight-month suspended sentences. The sentences will be added to the prison term they were already serving.

Five other inmates were convicted of assisting the six to escape and were sentenced to additional four years in prison.

The six, including Zakaria Zubeidi, a high-profile former commander of the Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade armed group, escaped the Gilboa Prison in northern Israel in September, 2021.

They prepared the escape for almost a year, using cutlery and aluminum trays to create tools for digging a tunnel beneath their cell.

The jailbreak, extensively covered by Israeli media, prompted a massive manhunt. All of the six were captured by Israeli security forces days after the escape.

The six had been convicted or suspected of being involved in carrying out attacks against Israelis.

The rare jailbreak was hailed as heroic in the Palestinian West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and embarrassed Israel. It sparked a string of demonstrations in the West Bank to support the escapees and to protest the measures Israel has taken in prisons after the escape.