Israel breaks up riot by Palestinian prisoners

Israeli police fired water cannon and tear gas on Thursday to break up a riot led by Palestinian Islamic militants at a prison, authorities said. They said 20 prisoners and 15 prison guards suffered tear gas inhalation as the rampage was put down at Shikma prison in the city of Ashkelon in Israel.

‘‘The incident is over and the situation is calm,’’ an official at the Israeli Prisons Service said after inmates, including some held for planning suicide attacks, resisted when guards feared an escape attempt. The riot began when guards, fearing an escape attempt, tried to search a cell confining Islamic Jihad militants after discovering a sketched map of the jail on a prisoner.

‘‘Following the discovery of a paper hidden on a prisoner from Shikma prison, with a sketch of the prison on it, it was decided to search his cell as well as the cells of other inmates in the prison,’’ the Prisons Service said. (Reuters)