Israel arrests 4 Palestinian fighters who escaped prison

Six of them broke out of maximum-security jail last week

Israeli police yesterday said they have arrested four of the six Palestinians who broke out of a maximum-security prison last week.

The arrests moved Israel closer to closing an embarrassing episode that exposed deep flaws in its prison system and turned the prisoners into heroes. Late on Friday, Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into Israel in an apparent sign of solidarity, drawing Israeli air strikes in reprisal. The four wanted men were caught in a pair of arrests in northern Israel.

Early yesterday, police said they had caught two men, including Zakaria Zubeidi, in the Arab town of Umm Al Ghanam. Zubeidi was a militant leader during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.

While he has been linked to attacks on Israelis, he also was well known for giving frequent media interviews and for a friendship he once had with an Israeli woman. Zubeidi over the years had received amnesty and taken college courses and was active in a West Bank theatre movement before he was rearrested in 2019 on suspicions of involvement in attacks.

The search for the final two prisoners was continuing.

Earlier, two other prisoners were arrested in Nazareth, an Arab city in northern Israel just west of Umm Al Ghanam.

The arrests moved Israel closer to closing an embarrassing episode that exposed deep flaws in its prison system.