The IDF is implementing increased alert measures to their second-highest status as Hamas declared a “Day of Rage” challenging Israel’s southern border as an act of unity with the six terrorist security prisoners who escaped Gilboa Prison on Monday. The violence is set to take following Muslim prayers.

“In light of the frenzied attack against our prisoners, we call on our Palestinian people to make Friday a day of Palestinian rage in the face of the arrogance of the occupation and its aggression against the prisoners, and to head toward points of contact and clash with the enemy army,” Hamas said in a statement on Thursday.  “[We are ready to] make sacrifices and fight battles for the freedom of the prisoners,” the Hamas statement read. “The escalation of the resistance and the clash with the enemy army carries a clear message to the occupation and its leaders that we, as a Palestinian people, are united behind the option of resistance and the protection of prisoners and holy sites.”

Extra security personnel has also been allocated to prisons across the country as riots broke out this week in the Ketziot and Ramon prisons in southern Israel on Wednesday. Unrest was reported in other prisons across the country and fires were set in cells.

מתפרעים פלסטינים משליכים בקבוקי תבערה ויורים זיקוקים לעבר כוחות הביטחון בעיסאוויה שבמזרח ירושלים@SuleimanMas1 pic.twitter.com/adkJ2cohpa

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 8, 2021

Riots have also been held in Arab villages in Judea and Samaria to express unity with the escaped terrorists, burning tires and throwing rocks.  Riots were reported near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, the Jerusalem Issawiya neighborhood, in Hebron, Hawara, Azzoun, near Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, and in other locations. In at least one case, rioters near the Judea and Samaria Square in the Ramallah district of the West Bank were reported to use live fire against Israeli soldiers. No IDF soldiers were injured in the incident. Palestinian rioters pelted IDF troops in Hebron with stones on Thursday night leading to the arrest of at least one. A closure has been in effect due to the violence.

מחדל בריחת המחבלים | פלסטינים מתפרעים גם בכניסה לשכונת עיסאוויה בירושלים@SuleimanMas1 pic.twitter.com/8LXbjqStjb

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 8, 2021

Hamas terrorists have also increased arson balloon attacks over the last week, sparking fires in southern Israel.

Four of the six Palestinian prisoners were serving life sentences for violent crimes when they escaped via a tunnel. All six are considered highly dangerous. They are still at large though security officials believe they may have fled to Jordan.

The Palestinian Authority called on its people to support the “heroes of the Gilboa prison tunnel”. The PA government instructed its embassies to raise the issue of the security prisoners with governments and international institutions, as well as the media.

Hamas began holding weekly Day of Rage riots three weeks ago reminiscent of the March of Return riots that began in March 2018 and continued for the next 20 months. Over 200 Gazans, many of them members of Hamas’ military wing, were killed while attacking Israel’s southern security border. It should be noted that despite media speculation as to the motivation or cause of the violence, Hamas, the elected government in Gaza, has in its charter a pledge to destroy Israel and murder all Jews.