Today, Friday, sporadic clashes erupted between Palestinians and the occupation forces during protests condemning the escalation in prisons, while Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz vowed to arrest the fleeing prisoners, coinciding with the intensification of efforts to search for them.

Several locations in the West Bank witnessed demonstrations and marches in solidarity with the prisoners, some of which turned into confrontations with the Israeli army.

Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted medical sources as saying that 40 Palestinians - including a journalist - were injured during clashes in the towns of Beita and Beit Dajan in the Nablus governorate, where the Israeli army used live and metal bullets and tear gas canisters to disperse the demonstrators.

Clashes were repeated in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, and the town of Kafr Qaddoum (east of Qalqilya), while young men set fire to rubber tires and threw stones at the soldiers.

And the occupation forces had previously stormed the town of Araba in Jenin at dawn, and arrested 3 brothers of the prisoner Mahmoud Ardah, who managed to escape, two days after the arrest of two other brothers.

The Israeli forces also stormed the town of Bir al-Basha in Jenin and arrested the brother of the prisoner, Yaqoub Qadri, one of the six fugitives.

The police and the occupation army reinforced their forces throughout the West Bank in anticipation of a field escalation in light of calls by the Palestinian factions to continue the protests.

The transfer of a young man who was injured during the clashes in the town of Beita (Reuters)

Aqsa pause

Worshipers in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem organized a stand in solidarity with the prisoners, as they marched in the vicinity of the Dome of the Rock, chanting Palestinian patriotic chants, to the site of the Israeli police station, without recording confrontations.

The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, devoted the bulk of the Friday sermon to talking about the issue of the prisoners, pointing to their steadfastness and calling for their release.

And the Israeli police have strengthened their presence in Jerusalem, especially at the gates of the Old City and the outer gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

A stand in the Al-Aqsa courtyards where the Palestinian flags were raised (Reuters)

Gaza pause

In the Gaza Strip, protesters performed Friday prayers in front of the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in solidarity with the Palestinian detainees in prisons, in response to an invitation from the Islamic Jihad Movement.

During the Friday sermon, a member of the Political Bureau of the Jihad Movement, Nafez Azzam, said, "The prison did not succeed in killing the spirit and will of the revolutionaries and the free people," considering that the escape of the six prisoners from Gilboa prison last Monday is evidence of that.

Azzam added that "the heroic operation is a message to the printers to stop this wrong path."

The demonstrators - during their stand in Gaza - denounced the crackdown launched by the Israeli Prisons Administration against Palestinian prisoners following the prisoner escape, and stressed the continuation of activities to support prisoners in the occupation prisons.

The occupation threatens

On the other hand, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said during an inspection tour of the Salem military camp (north of Jenin) that "there are intensive searches for prisoners escaping from Gilboa prison, and in the end we will put our hands on the escapees from prisons."

Gantz added that cooperation with the Palestinian Authority continues, and that the escaped prisoners must be arrested without disturbing other balances.

The Israeli security forces sent specialists in criminal investigations to Marj Ibn Amer (south of Nazareth), backed by a helicopter, as part of the search for the fugitive prisoners.