6 Palestinians sentenced to extra 5 years for jail break

Six Palestinians were sentenced to an additional five years in prison on Sunday for escaping from a prison in northern Israel through a tunnel in 2021, according to Israeli media.

The six, already serving life terms for anti-Israeli attacks, escaped on September 6 last year from Gilbao prison through a tunnel dug under a sink.

Hailed as “heroes” by the Palestinians, their escape triggered a massive manhunt by army reinforcements and drones before their capture two weeks later.

Apart from the extra prison sentences, the men were each fined 5,000 shekels (about $160).

“My client told the court he did not regret the escape because he had nothing to lose,” lawyer Raslan Mahajana told reporters.

Among the escapees was Mahmud Ardah, a member of the militant Islamic Jihad group, considered the mastermind of the operation.

After he was recaptured, Ardah said he had used spoons, plates and even the handle of a kettle to dig the tunnel.

He escaped along with Zakaria al-Zubeidi, a chief of the armed branch of president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party.

Daoud al-Zubeidi, his brother, was killed in an Israeli army raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on May 15.