At least seven family members of escaped Palestinian inmates have been arrested by Israeli troops, according to a report by Aljazeera.
Addameer, the Palestinian prisoner support and human rights association, said on Wednesday at least seven family members of the escapees were detained by Israeli soldiers throughout the occupied West Bank, though some were held only briefly.
Israel had deployed drones, road checkpoints and an army mission to Jenin, the West Bank hometown of many of the men locked up but have not been able to find the escaped prisoners.
Among those reportedly arrested were relatives of Mahmoud and Mohammed Al-Arida in the town of Arraba, near Jenin.
The brothers are members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group who were serving life sentences when they and four others escaped from Gilboa prison early Monday in what is considered to be among the most serious jailbreaks in the country’s history.
Reports also said troops arrested the father of Munadil Nafayat in the nearby town of Yaabad, although he was reportedly released hours later.
Nafayat, an Islamic Jihad member, was being held under administrative detention, which allows the imprisonment of suspects without filing charges for security purposes, at the time of the prison break and is the only fugitive not charged with a crime.
Also on Wednesday, Hebrew media reports said the Israel Prisons Service was refraining from transferring Islamic Jihad prisoners held at Ofer Prison in the West Bank to other facilities following threats of rioting.
The prisons service said in response that it was continuing to carry out the order to disperse Islamic Jihad members among various prisons, adding that an unspecified number of prisoners who expressed opposition to moving will face disciplinary action.
The six inmates escaped from a high security prison in North Israel through a hole.
Israeli troops had suggested that the escaped inmates must have had help from outside.