OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Six Palestinians broke out of an Israeli prison Monday through a tunnel dug beneath a sink, triggering a massive manhunt for the group that includes a prominent ex-militant. The Israel Prison Service said an alert was sounded around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) by locals who spotted "suspicious figures" outside the Gilboa prison in the country's north.

The group includes Zakaria Zubeidi, a former militant leader from the flashpoint city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. In footage that recalled the iconic 1994 prison escape film "The Shawshank Redemption," the IPS released a video which showed agents inspecting a narrow tunnel beneath a sink and another showing a hole just outside the prison walls.

Gilboa - which opened in 2004 during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising - is a high security site where hundreds of Palestinians are detained among other inmates. The prison service said all those held at Gilboa over "security offences" were being relocated in case additional escape tunnels have been dug beneath the facility.