Last Thursday night, three Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Schaar and Naftali Fraenkel were abducted setting off a massive manhunt for the three and their captors. Israel has mobilized its reserve units to assist in the search. Palestinian society is showing support … for the kidnappers.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday praised the Israeli security services for their overnight roundup of dozens of Palestinians, including 50 Hamas operatives, in the West Bank search for three kidnapped Jewish teens.The IDF arrested 64 Palestinians in overnight raids across the West Bank on Wednesday, including 50 former Hamas prisoners who had been released by Israel in the Schalit exchange in 2011.
Another article at the Post says that if any of these suspects is found to have violated the terms of their release, he will be sent back for the “remainder of [his] original sentence.”
A Hamas leader hails the kidnapping as a “heroic capture operation.”
Israel’s communications minister Gilad Eran says that Israel knows which Hamas cell is responsible for the kidnappings.
Following Tuesday’s security situation assessment Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said, “The operational an intelligence efforts are ongoing. This is a complex operation and as far as we’re concerned it’s not limited in scope or time, so therefore it required patience.”Massive forces have been deployed on the ground to conduct the search, while we continue to undermine Hamas infrastructure in Judea and Samaria. We will exact a heavy price from Hamas over this abduction. We will find the abductors and we will know where to find Hamas’ leadership,” the defense minister said.Communications Minister Gilad Erdan was quoted by Israel Radio Wednesday as saying that Israel “knows exactly which Hamas cell” is behind the abduction.
An Israeli Arab was threatened for expressing his support the kidnapped teens on YouTube.
According to the Times of Israel, three relatives of Mohammad Zoabi were arrested for threatening after he posted the video to YouTube. His mother, though, defended him. A cousin, anti-Zionist MK Hanin Zoabi defended the kidnappers, drawing praise from Hamas.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner of the IDF’s spokesman office explained, generally, the army’s approach to the Times of Israel.
Lerner confirmed that this is the dynamic at play. “The story is like this,” he said. “The main effort, of course, is intelligence gathering and converting the intelligence to focused operational activity against the perpetrators.”“In parallel, there are full circles of Hamas, which operate in Judea and Samaria, which have grown… and we have seen a rise in Hamas over the past year… And if they chose to carry out this sort of attack, then we are now acting against this organization, massively, very significantly, across all of the West Bank.”
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