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Jailbreaks by Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli jails are almost unheard of and the profile of the prisoners led Israel's prime minister, Naftali Bennett, to describe it as a "grave incident".

While initial reports suggested the men had tunnelled out, Katy Perry, the commissioner of the Israel prisons service, said the escapers exploited a flaw in the prison's structural design, exposing a gap behind a wall.

"From our initial investigation, it appears that there was no digging; rather, a plate that covered the space was lifted out of place."

Images released after the escape showed a narrow gap in a wall that had been dug out behind a sink, allowing the men to reach the prison's drainage system. According to reports in the Israeli media, the prisoners spent several months working on their tunnel using a spoon which they had kept hidden behind a poster in their cell.

Palestinian militant groups praised the breakout. Daoud Shehab, a spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, said:

"This is a great heroic act, which will cause a severe shock to the Israeli security system and will constitute a severe blow to the army and the entire system in Israel."

The Hamas spokesperson, Fawzi Barhoum, said the escape showed:

"that the struggle for freedom with the occupier is continuous and extended, inside prisons and outside to extract this right".

Pence took particular issue with Biden's tone in his Thursday speech, in which the Democrat told Americans still not inoculated against Covid-19 that his administration's patience with them was "wearing thin."

"To have the president of the United States say that he's been patient, but his patience is wearing thin, that's not how the American people expect to be spoken to by our elected leaders," Pence said Friday on Fox & Friends.

The Biden vaccine plan, Pence said, is "unlike anything I have ever heard from an American president."

Biden argued in his Thursday announcement that his plan was "not about freedom or personal choice."

"It's exactly about freedom," he said, adding that Biden and other elected officials "scolding" the American public was "not the American way - and I expect the response they are going to get across the country will prove that."

"This is absolutely unconstitutional," tweeted Representative Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky). "OSHA has no more authority to enforce this (there's no statutory authorization) than CDC had to issue the eviction moratorium. Which is to say they both have ZERO authority to do these things. Congress makes the laws in a constitutional republic."

"Those businesses should openly rebel against any such rule," said his colleague Chip Roy (R-Texas).

Commenting on the mandate for federal workers, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington) argued the "authoritarian Biden-Harris administration" is ignoring science and "using fear, control, and mandates" to undermine confidence in vaccines.

"He's demented," tweeted Blake Masters, a GOP candidate for the US Senate in Arizona, calling the mandate "a wildly disproportionate response... just about power and control."

Tennessee Republican Robby Starbuck, who is running for Congress in 2022, said it was "time to resist," and urged GOP legislators, mayors, governors and attorneys general to do so. "Biden's overreach cannot go unchecked. Now is the time to fight for our voters, freedoms and America," he tweeted.

Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance, who is running for the US Senate in Ohio, called the mandates "morally reprehensible" and dubbed Biden a "geriatric tyrant" who talks about millions of Americans "as if they're nothing more than vermin to be ruled by him and his friends."

"Do not comply," Vance urged Americans, calling for mass civil disobedience.

"This isn't a fight against vaccines. This is a fight for whether we have America, or we don't," tweeted conservative pundit Tony Katz.

Pundit Candace Owens engaged in a flight of fancy, wondering what would happen if all federal employees "refused to play ball with Dictator Biden" and went on strike. Much of the federal bureaucracy, however, is sympathetic to the Democrats.

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced on Thursday that the RNC will sue the Biden administration for its "unconstitutional" COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

"Joe Biden told Americans when he was elected that he would not impose vaccine mandates. He lied. Now small businesses, workers, and families across the country will pay the price," McDaniel said in a statement.

"Like many Americans, I am pro-vaccine and anti-mandate. Many small businesses and workers do not have the money or legal resources to fight Biden's unconstitutional actions and authoritarian decrees, but when his decree goes into effect, the RNC will sue the administration to protect Americans and their liberties."