Last year, six Palestinians escaped from a high-security prison by digging a tunnel, sparking a massive manhunt.
An Israeli court sentenced six Palestinian escapees to five years in prison for the crime trench last year and escaped from a high-security facility that became Israel’s biggest prison break in decades.
The daring prison break sparked a major crackdown in the north of Israel and the occupied West Bank as Israeli forces attempted to recapture the men, who were members of Palestinian armed groups.
The daring escape has dominated the news, sparking heavy criticism of Israel’s prison service, and prompting the Israeli government to launch an investigation.
The escapees were recaptured a few days later.
A judge ruled Sunday that the sentencing of six took into account the fact that the escape had paralyzed Israel for days, the financial costs involved in recapturing the escapees, and harm to public security caused by prisoners, under life sentences and convicts. of serious crime, escape.
The five-year sentences will be added to the prison terms already served by inmates.
Five other inmates accused of aiding the men’s escape were sentenced to an additional four years in prison.
According to various reports, the escapees used kitchen utensils to tunnel through the floor of their shared cell undetected for months. They then pass a sleeping warden after going through a hole outside the prison.
![An artist paints a mural honoring six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from Israel's Gilboa prison in September 2021 with the help of a humble spoon [Mahmud Hams/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/000_9N36F2.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C500)
Israel considers all six of the escapees “terrorists”. Palestinians consider many of the prisoners held by Israel to be heroes of their national cause, and many on social media celebrated the escape and organized protests in support of the escaped prisoners.
Five of the escapees belonged to the armed group Islamic Jihad, with four of them serving life sentences. The sixth escapee, Zakaria Zubeidi, is a member of the secular Fatah group of President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.
Zubeidi was a leader in the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s and is well known in Israel both for his activism and love for media interviews.
