2014 Gush Etzion kidnapping and murder

2014 kidnapping and murder of 3 Israeli teens

File:3 Kidnapped Teens.jpg
Date	12 June 2014 (2014-06-12)
Time	around 22:00 IDT (UTC+03:00)
Location	Gush Etzion, the West Bank
Coordinates	31.651354°N 35.125276°E / 31.651354; 35.125276
Outcome	The three kidnapped boys were killed; their bodies were found in a field north-west of Hebron on 30 June.
Deaths	8; Israeli-American Naftali Frankel (full name- Yaakov Naftali, 16, from Nof Ayalon), Israeli Gilad Shaer (full name- Gilad Michael, 16, from Talmon), Israeli Eyal Yifrah (19, from El'ad), Palestinian Ahmad Sabarin (20–21, from Jalazone refugee camp), Mohammed Dodeen (15, of Dura), Mustafa Aslan (22, from Qalandiya refugee camp), Mahmoud Atallah (Ramallah), Ahmad Khalid (36, from Ein Beit al-Ma' refugee camp).
Suspects	Hamas activists Marwan Kawasmeh (29) and Amar Abu-Isa (32)

On 12 June 2014, three Israeli teenagers went missing in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank. They were last seen in the Gush Etzion area, hitchhiking to their homes. The three teens were Naftali Frenkel (16, from Nof Ayalon), Gilad Shaer (16, from Talmon), and Eyal Yifrah (19, from Elad). Frankel was a dual Israeli-American citizen. On 30 June, the bodies of the three boys were found in a field north-west of Hebron.

IDF's Nahal Brigade conducting a search in the Hebron area

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the teens had been kidnapped by Hamas, and ordered a crackdown on Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank. Hamas denied the charge. Palestinian authorities noted that the kidnapping occurred in an area under full Israeli control, while Israeli authorities said the kidnapping originated from Palestinian controlled areas. In the following 11 days Israel arrested some 350 Palestinians, including nearly all of Hamas' West Bank leaders.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas criticized the kidnapping, saying the youths must be returned, and said that Palestinian Authority security was cooperating with Israel to try to locate them. However, he maintained that as of 22 June there was no evidence to show that Hamas was behind the kidnapping. Hamas praised the kidnapping, without claiming responsibility, and condemned Abbas for criticizing the kidnapping.

Hamas militants Marwan Kawasmeh (29) and Amar Abu-Isa (32) were identified as key suspects in the kidnapping by the Israel Security Agency on 26 June. Both ISA and Palestinian authorities said that the two men have been missing since the night of the kidnapping, and the ISA stated that both had engaged in terrorism, been arrested, and served time in the past, and were considered suspects immediately after the kidnapping. A senior Palestinian intelligence official said off the record that their disappearance constituted clear evidence the two suspects have links with the abduction.

On 30 June the Israeli military found the bodies of the three missing teenagers in a field north-west of Hebron. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a tough response to the killings.

Sequence of events

Week 1

Of the three boys, Eyal Yifrah of El'ad, Israeli-American Naftali Frenkel from Nof Ayalon and Gil-Ad Shaer fromTalmon. Eyal Yifrah was a student at the Shavei Hevron Yeshiva on Al-Shuhada Street in Hebron. The other two are students (talmidim) of the Mekor Chaim yeshiva at Kfar Etzion in the West Bank's Area C under full Israeli administration. Netanyahu asserted that the attack originated from PA-controlled areas, and criticized the Fatah-Hamas pact.

Day 1

Thursday night – Friday, 12–13 June. At 6:30 pm on Thursday 12 June, Yifrach and Shaer took a ride on Hativat HaNegev towards Gush Etzion. At 10 pm that evening, they were sighted at Alon Shvut Junction, , after which they were not seen. One boy contacted a police emergency hotline to report the kidnapping at 10:25 p.m. Eight attempts were made to page the caller's cellphone, without checking its ownership, and the whispered remark was taken to be one of the many pranks that night and four and a half hours passed before Shaer's family finally phoned the Talmon security coordinator to inform him their son Gil-Ad had not returned home. Only then did the security establishment take the case seriously, and Shin Bet and the IDF were alerted by the police. According to the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency, the army succeeded in tracing the call to the Sanjar region, the last cellphone signal being made about 11:30 p.m. in the Hebron area.

Police placed a gag order re the abduction on Israeli news services by 13 June (the identity of the presumed kidnappers, acolytes of senior Hamas members, being known almost from the beginning) and, in lieu of concrete details, rumours proliferated. Controversy soon raged in Israel over the police delay in reporting the call. At 11 am on 13 June, a “Hannibal” alert (meaning 'kidnapping') was issued.

According to Palestinian security sources, a Hyundai i35, with seating for 5, reportedly with Israeli license plates, was torched on the night of 12 June, and found by Palestinian police two kilometres from the village of Beit Einun near Hebron. This vehicle was believed to be connected to the abduction. The suspicion arose that the use of the Israeli sedan was a trick to lull the hitchhikers into believing the vehicle was driven by Israelis.

Days 2–3

14–15 June. The Hebron and South Hebron Hills areas were the focus of investigations by a large number of troops, by the 15th. 2,500 soldiers together with security agents, police, and special forces engaged in a manhunt, scouring numerous villages, including Beit Ummar, Beit Einun, Halhul, Dura, as-Samu, Tarqumiyah, Beit Kahil, Yatta, Taffuh, and Tapuah in what the IDF terms 'Operation Shuvu Achim (Return, Brothers/Bring Back Our Brothers),' and referred to in English as 'Brother’s Keeper'. though rubber-coated bullets and tear-gas canisters were heard.

IDF troops entering a building to search on 15 June.

Over the weekend, Israeli security forces also arrested around 80 Palestinians, among them senior members of Hamas, accused of being connected to the kidnapping, in a sweep that rounded up former government leaders, clerics, university lecturers, and militants of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad across the West Bank. In Hebron’s Ein Deir Baha neighborhood Israeli forces broke down a door, apparently by firing a missile, after surrounding the house of Akram al-Qawasami. He, his son Muhammad (8) and younger daughter Sujoud, were injured by shrapnel, and two Hamas operatives, among them Zaid Akram al-Qawasami, were arrested inside. The military also fully closed the Hebron area and Gaza crossings, only allowing passage for humanitarian cases.

On Sunday Netanyahu said what he had only hinted at previously, that Israel ‘knew for a fact’ that the abduction had been carried out by Hamas, a position the IDF had avoided explicitly stating. Security officials remained more cautious, tending to accept the probability that a Hebronite Hamas cell was involved, but uncertain whether it was a local initiative to secure prisoner releases or an operation approved by the Hamas leadership in Gaza. A remark by Moshe Ya'alon about the 'very heavy price' Hamas leaders might pay was interpreted by one journalist as hinting Israel might be mulling the option of resuming its campaign of targeted killings, this time against the Hamas leadership. Israel's Deputy Minister of Defense, Danny Danon, threatened "possible actions" in Gaza and Ramallah.

Day 4

16 June. Overnight on 16 June, the IDF clashed with Palestinians in Jenin, where they ransacked the offices of Mustafa Barghouti's Palestinian National Initiative and confiscated computers, and 400 soldiers raided the Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah, killing Ahmad Arafat Samada (Ahmad Sabarin) (20 or 21) with a gunshot wound in the chest. A dragnet rounded up a further 50 people, bringing the total of Palestinians detained to 150. Many arrests, including the former speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Aziz Duwaik (66), were part of what IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz described as an extensive operation, and were not linked to the search for the youths, but were part of a crackdown to apply pressure on Hamas. Netanyahu's approach has been interpreted as aimed at driving a wedge between Fatah and Hamas in order to break up the reconciliation between the two negotiated in April 2014, and discredit both Abbas and his government, which has been backed by Western countries. PA sources note that Hamas, in the unity negotiations, had undertaken to desist from attacks and bloodshed, and if its involvement were proven, it would be a breach of the agreement that would render the reconciliation null and void, a point repeated later in the week by the Palestinian Foreign Minister.

Weapons found in Nablus during Operation Brother’s Keeper on the night of 16 June.

Day 5

17 June. Overnight between the 16th and 17th the Israeli governing authority in the West Bank raided several institutions linked to Hamas in the Hebron Governorate in search of documents, on the suspicion that Hamas charities were money-laundering fronts to finance terrorism, and only took advantage of the poor in order to gain their support. Anything linked to Hamas was being targeted, an official source said. The IDF shifted its attentions north, and deployed 1,000 soldiers from the Nahal Brigade for operations around Nablus. In particular the Balata Refugee Camp and the village of Awarta were scoured in what a spokesman called '"cleaning house" in the "terror capital of Nablus"', and a further 41 Palestinians were detained, among them the manager of the Hamas-run television channel Al-Aqsa TV, bringing the number of arrests to 200. Israeli soldiers confiscated a large cache of weapons and uncovered a weapons manufacturing lab in Nablus.

Conflicting reports emerged on Israel's collaboration with both the PNA and other regional governments. Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Yoav Mordechai, denied on 16 June that Israel coordinated the search with Palestinian or Egyptian authorities. However, Israel military intelligence confirmed that Israel was working closely with both the PA authorities and Egypt. Egyptian sources stated the same day that Israel had requested their assistance and that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had issued directives to his security services to undertake negotiations with all parties. On the 17th, Israel defence sources said PNA assistance had been "very professional".

IDF troops in the West Bank on the night of 18 June.

Day 6

18 June. Overnight Israel seized a further 64 Palestinians, of whom 51 were Hamas members who had been formerly arrested but had been released in the Gilad Shalit exchange negotiations in 2011, bringing to 240 the number of arrests. In six days, the government sources announced, they had searched 800 structures, including the Al-Aqsa radio station in Ramallah and the Hebron-based TransMedia communications company, both linked to Hamas. They were taken in operations in Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, Yatta, Taffuh, Dura, Beit Kahil, East Jerusalem, Idhna, Surif, Beit Ula, Beit Awwa, Deir Sharaf, Salfit, Audla, Tell, Beit Furik and Qabatiya. The overnight operations also secured the defenses of Israeli settlements. However, in the process 300,000 Palestinians were left under curfew, 600,000 in the area had their movements restricted, and Hebronites with permission to work in Israel, an estimated 20,000, were denied entrance into Israel and thus their livelihood, and, according to an IDF spokesmen, Palestinians preparing for the Ramadan holiday have 'taken a hit'. Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan also stated that Israel had identified the Hamas cell responsible for the kidnapping.

Day 7

19 June. Overnight, troops raided the Bir Zeit University's student union searching for incriminating evidence, finding promotional material for Hamas. The Prime Minister declared at a press conference:"“We know more today than we did a few days ago.” The IDF arrested 25 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank, and searched 200 homes. Nine more raids were launched against Hamas social services (Dawah) centers. Moshe Ya'alon outlawed West Bank activities of the British Muslim charity, Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) because some of its offices employed Hamas members. In East Jerusalem, a social centre operated from a Beit Safafa mosque in Beit Safafa village, and a Sur Baher charity were also closed down. By night's end, 49 Palestinians had been arrested. One of the refugee camp detainees complained that soldiers had stolen $580 from his wallet.

Week 2

Day 8

20 June. Throughout the week, the arrest of Hamas leaders went quietly as they acceded to their detention, but by Friday sporadic popular resistance began to emerge. Three Palestinians were wounded in a raid on Qalandiya refugee camp, near Jerusalem, while another five were wounded in clashes at the Dheisheh refugee camp by Bethlehem, whose Ibdaa cultural center was wrecked, cheques and money from its safe, together with five computers, confiscated. Four of the victims were reportedly run over by an Israeli jeep. During a clash near the Qalandiya checkpoint in Ramallah, in which handmade grenades were hurled at Israeli soldiers who felt their lives were threatened and returned live fire at Palestinian crowds that confronted them, Mustafa Hosni Aslan (22) received a gunshot wound to his head, and was pronounced clinically dead. He died on 25 June. Live fire was used according to the IDF in response to Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, one makeshift grenade, firecrackers, and stones being thrown at soldiers at the camps. In Dura's Haninia neighbourhood, after a night-long raid, involving many clashes with local youths, to detain a person Israelis consider to be a terrorist, as troops were withdrawing, eyewitness testimonies report that a retreating Israeli soldier fired 6 shots and killed 15-year-old Mohammed Dudeen. 25 more Palestinians were arrested at Dura and Dheisheh, bringing the number of detainees to 320, of which 240 are considered Hamas operatives. The number of sites searched mounted to 1,150, of which 1,000 buildings were damaged, the figure including over 750 homes. According to Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki Israel had destroyed 150 homes by week's end. In another dawn raid on the Dean's Office and Student Union of the Arab American University in Jenin papers were seized, and Amir Saadi, 17, was shot in the shoulder. The villages of Arraba, Al-Louz, and Artas were also raided.

Riyad al-Malki demanded Israel produce evidence that Hamas is culpable, stating that Netanyahu cannot 'keep blaming one side without showing evidence'. He said Israel's massive military sweeps were unacceptable, with 300 Palestinians taken in exchange for three Israeli kids, but the Palestinian authority would act to prevent an uprising, for 'if the situation continues as it is, this will end up (with) the destruction of what we have built in Palestine'.

On Friday night, Israeli security spokesmen said the 'noose was tightening', as troops were concentrated near Hebron, with intelligence officials confident that attempts to move the youths to either Jordan, Gaza or the Sinai had failed. A spokesman for the Prime Minister, Amos Gilead, stated that Netanyahu's view that Hamas was responsible was "built on the base of firm intelligence." IDF forces ransacked Bethlehem's biggest Islamic charity, devoted to Orphan’s Care, in the Jabal al-Mawalih neighborhood and took away computers and files.

Day 9

21 June. Israeli forces concentrated their investigations on villages north of Hebron, searching wells, pits, and houses. According to Palestinian reports, an elderly man, Ali Abed Jabir, either died during an altercation with Israeli troops who broke into his home while ransacking houses in the village of Haris, or was denied passage for medical treatment after suffering a heart attack. Israel sources state the house was not raided and, on being told of the heart-attack, an Israeli ambulance was called. A further 39 Palestinians, primarily in Hebron and Bethlehem, were arrested in overnight raids, bringing the number seized to roughly 370, 75 of whom had been released in the 2011 prisoner swap. IDF sources challenge the report saying only 10 Hamas 'terrorists' were seized. Further claims of soldiers stealing money were made by villagers in Beit Kahil. In the village of al-Bireh, several houses were ransacked, and soldiers broke into the Noon Center for Islamic Studies and the Palmedia TC company where they confiscated computers and damaged furniture. The IDF said cash had been confiscated in 21 homes of the 146 homes searched overnight. Palestinian sources also state that in a predawn raid in Nablus, a female reporter was assaulted and troops shot and injured two Palestinian teenagers. In the late afternoon three fire trucks, with pumps to empty pools of water, and an ATV rescue unit were rushed to assist special forces searching an area riddled with caves and wells north of Hebron, between Highway 35 and Highway 60, reportedly without concrete intelligence leads. Netanyahu reaffirmed that 'the information in Israel's hands unequivocally indicates that Hamas is responsible for the abduction of the youths.'

Day 10

Street in Ramallah after IDF raid during Operation Brother’s Keeper June 2014

22 June. Israeli units shot dead 2 Palestinians and wounded another 11 in overnight clashes in Ramallah and Nablus, while 9 (Israeli statistic) to 38 (Palestinian statistic) were arrested and 5 charity offices were raided. Israeli forces also raided Abu Dis and Al-Quds University's law faculty, seizing flags and several computers. Ahmad Said Suod Khalid (27), an epileptic, of Ein Beit al-Ma' refugee camp was shot in the abdomen, back, and thigh, for refusing an order to turn back as he insisted on going to a mosque for dawn prayers. Muhammad Ismail Atallah Tarifi (30) was found dead on the roof of a building opposite an Israeli sniper position, an autopsy found he was shot dead by an M16, a rifle in use with the IDF. Mourners at his funeral in al-Bireh later complained that settlers from Psagot had fired at them, injuring one. Palestinians, protesting at the cooperation given Israel forces by their own police, who have dispersed crowds by firing live ammunition in the air, smashed four local police cars in Ramallah, and, once Israelis had withdrawn from the city, raided a police station in Al Manara Square. Abbas, affirming that he was not convinced Hamas was responsible, called on Netanyahu to condemn two earlier killings, and asked if the criminal kidnapping justified 'the killing of Palestinian youth in cold blood?' The Palestinian Prisoners' Society names 420 people so far arrested, claims Israel consistently understates the numbers and refuses to disclose where they are detained. On Sunday the Palestinian Authority asked for an urgent convening of the UN Security Council, while mulling an appeal both to the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN General Assembly to put an end what it considered to be 'collective punishment', 'Israeli terrorist aggression against the State of Palestine', and what Hanan Ashrawi termed 'a reign of terror directed against a captive Palestinian population.'

Day 11

23 June. 80 locations, including 7 Hamas-linked charities, were raided from the Nablus to Hebron and Jenin areas, with a further 37 Palestinians detained overnight. 5 money-changing shops in Hebron (4) and Bethlehem (1) were also searched, and their computers confiscated. The number of Palestinians under detention rose to 471. An officer interviewed on Walla! said that Israel, having achieved most of its "band of targets", would close, and that the military incursion pattern in the West Bank, apart from detention raids, would stop within days. No clue to the teenagers' whereabouts, had turned up, but the operation, in crippling Hamas's infrastructure, had been a success. Netanyahu declared that “We’ve pretty much figured out who are the kidnappers — the actual perpetrators, the supporters, the command structure — and there’s no question, these are members of Hamas.”

Day 12

Nursery in Hebron home after IDF search. 24 June 2014

24 June. 120 buildings were searched and 4 to 13 Palestinians were rounded up by Israeli forces in the Hebron area, in Beit Kahil, Beit Awwa, al-Arrub refugee camp, and the Hebron neighbourhoods of al-Mahawir, al-Bassa, and al-Hawooz, bringing the number of sites examined to 1,800 and the number of detained Palestinians, in the IDF calculation, to 354, or according to Palestinian sources, over 500. As town searches and arrests wound down, investigators have shifted their focus to interrogations of detainees and scrutiny of the 150 security cameras in the area in which the kidnapping is believed to have taken place. The IDF admitted it had no substantial lead on the boys' whereabouts, or fate. A lawyer for the PA said that in the wake of the West Bank round-up, the number of Palestinian minors detained in Israeli jails exceeds 250, and that the hunt for the missing Israeli youths serves to cover up this fact.

Day 13

25 June. 17 Palestinians were arrested overnight in Yatta, Beit Ummar, Hebron and Bethlehem among them legislative council members Khalid Tafish and Anwar Zaboun, both of Bethlehem, bringing the number of Palestinian legislators arrested in the campaign to 12. Of the 19 people arrested in Beit Ummar since the start of the search, 14 are minors. A Palestinian youth in Khursa, Younis al-Rjoub (18), was shot in the abdomen during a clash with Israeli soldiers.

Day 14

26 June. 136 structures were searched overnight, and a further 10 Palestinians were arrested in the Hebron area on suspicion of being terrorists. Fatima Ismail Issa Rushdi (78) died of a heart attack during an Israeli raid on the Arruba refugee camp. 9 youths were injured by tear gas and rubber bullets. Two boys, aged 13 and 14 were arrested in Dura. 44-year-old Ismail Ahmad al-Hawamda was shot in the foot, running away from a checkpoint in the Hebron district town of al-Samu. Despite the Oslo Accords stipulating coordination with the PA security service for Israeli entry into West Bank Areas in the Area A, in what was called an 'unprecedented move, Israeli units raided the Tunis and Rafidia neighbourhoods of Nablus and Balata refugee camp without prior clearance. 200 homes in Awarta were also raided.

According to Israel figures, state detentions number 381, of whom 282 affiliated to Hamas. The number of locations searched rose to 1,955, including 64 Hamas institutions. Palestinian figures state that 566 have been detained, 6 were shot dead and over 120 wounded; 2 elderly people died of heart attacks during Israeli operations, and over 1,200 homes were searched.

Week 3

On 26 June, the Israel Security Agency (ISA) identified two Hebronite "Hamas activists" , Ammar Muhammad Abu Eisha (33), a locksmith, and Marwan al-Qawasmeh (29), a barber, as key suspects: both had disappeared from their homes on the night of the kidnapping, and are believed to be integral members of the kidnapping group. The ISA stated that both men had engaged in terrorism, been arrested and served time in the past and were considered suspects immediately after the kidnapping. Both ISA and Palestinian authorities said that both men have been missing since the kidnapping. According to the ISA, Qawasmeh had admitted in the past to having been recruited by the Hamas military wing. The former's brother was killed by the IDF in November 2005, while the latter's uncle, a Hamas military commander, was killed by an Israeli SWAT squad in June 2003. A senior Palestinian intelligence official said off the record that their disappearance constitutes: "clear evidence they have links with the abduction."

On 30 June 2014, a search team located the bound bodies of the three boys in an open field near Khirbet Aranava in the Wadi Tellem area, between Halhul and Karmei Tzur, about 3 km west of the former, just north of Hebron. A high security source revealed that:

The quick solving of the crime by the Shin Bet, which within a 24-hour period identified the kidnappers, together with military pressure in the field, prevented the kidnappers from hiding the bodies and negotiating with Israel for their return.

The ambulance carrying the three bodies was attacked by Palestinians as it left Halhul, the location where the bodies were found. They hurled rocks and paint at the ambulance, smashing its windshield and blinding the windows but failed to cause the driver to lose control.

On July 1, 2014 Israeli jet and helicopters struck 34 locations in the Hamas-run Gaza strip. A 19-year-old Palestinian man, Yousouf Al-Zagha, was shot dead by Israeli troops during a raid in the northern town of Jenin. An IDF spokesperson said the man had thrown a grenade at the troops, while his family maintained he had been carrying eggs home for suhoor, the predawn meal during the fast of Ramadan.

Deployment of forces

In the first week, Israel added a further three to the six combat brigades already present in the West Bank. Close to 40 battalions are engaged in rounding up suspects, notably the Paratroopers' 35th Division and the Kfir's 900th Division. Other specialized groups, such as the Duvdevan Unit, the Egoz Reconnaissance Unit and the Airborne Rescue And Evacuation Unit 669 supplement the search force. Skylark mini UAV drones are being deployed, and the Yahalom combat engineering unit is also active in tunnel searches. Fifty Bedouin IDF trackers are also being used.

Accusations of collective punishment

On Day 7, The Palestinian Authority declared that the Israeli modus operandi, of clamping down on towns with closures and continual arrest of Hamas members, consisted of collective punishment. Amnesty International issued a statement on 19 June calling both for the release of the Israeli youths, their humane treatment while being held, and for Israel to lift several measures it defined as collective punishment in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as Customary international humanitarian law.

Among the measures it identified, Amnesty International listed:

• The taking of civilians, in this case the three youths, whose abduction and use as hostages, even in what it termed the unlawful Israeli settlements in 'Occupied Palestinian Territories,' is prohibited under international law.

• Many of the Palestinian Hamas members rearrested, including reportedly 18 parliamentarians, have been subject to administrative detention, without trial or charges being laid, a practice Amnesty condemns.

• It regards the arrest of individuals in connection with abduction, without evidence of complicity and only because of an alleged affiliation with the Hamas movement, to be 'arbitrary and in breach of international human rights law.'

• The killing of Ahmad Sabarin in a refugee camp where Amnesty had previously alleged use of excessive force by Israel.

• The total closure imposed on 750,000 Palestinians in the Hebron district.

• Restrictive measured imposed by the Israel Prison Service, in cancelling family visits for Palestinian prisoners and detainees, when many are in danger from the hunger strike against the practice of administrative detention.

• The option entertained by Israel of transferring West Bank Hamas officials or prisoners to the Gaza Strip violates the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits an occupying power from forcibly deporting people from an occupied territory.

• The closure of the Erez Crossing and Kerem Shalom border crossing, the transit points for supplying the Gaza Strip with basic necessities. The 7 year blockade of the Gaza Strip was, in their view, in flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

• Rockets attacks from Gaza into Israel constitute a war crime, but cannot be cited to justify measures of collective punishment against the 1.7 million Palestinians in that area, several of whom have been killed or injured by Israeli missile strikes.

Several Israeli scholars have rejected the claim that Operation Brother’s Keeper constitutes collective punishment under international law:

Robbie Sabel, a professor of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a former legal adviser to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, stated that Israel’s actions cannot be considered collective punishment as they are aimed exclusively at finding the kidnapped teenagers and weakening the terrorist organizations behind their abduction and that in a search for kidnapped civilians, the arrests of members affiliated with the organization responsible for the kidnapping is legitimate.

Eugene Kontorovich, international law professor at Northwestern and Hebrew universities has stated that “rounding up suspects, or potential witnesses, is not punishment, but rather rudimentary investigative process; especially when the crime is thought to be committed by a complex terror organization, the number of potential witnesses is high.” Kontorovich cited as an example that police often arrest members of a gang after a crime to further investigate the perpetrators or criminal acts.

Background, possible motives, and suspects

In an address to the World Economic Forum in May 2013, Mahmoud Abbas pleaded with his Israeli listeners to address the primary concern of Palestinian society, the plight of approximately 5,000 security prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons. The problem could be handled by negotiated concessions or by abductions, used to get them back. This has been called his Prisoner's dilemma, and he asked if Israel wanted more Shalit kidnapping cases, a practice he maintained went against the grain of Palestinian culture. Hamas quickly challenged his statement as 'unpatriotic'.

Initially a number of groups, some previously unknown, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings: The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (subsequently denied); a West Bank Branch of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Brigades of Global Jihad, Ahrar ar-Khalil (Liberators Battalion of Hebron), and Regiments of Hezbollah. It was not clear how true their claims were, and the middle three were not considered credible.

Some 300 prisoners on a hunger strike against the Israeli practice of holding Palestinians in Administrative detention without laying charges for six months or more. Militants and many Palestinians support the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and civilians as “bargaining chips for justice”, in order to obtain the release of these prisoners. In 2011, Israel released more than a thousand Palestinian in detention, many convicted by Israeli courts for lethal attacks, in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants after the IDF had abducted two sons of a Hamas member. Some months before the 2014 incident, an 18-page manual on abduction techniques was published by Hamas. Entitled “Guide for the Kidnapper,” it provided an operational guide that outlined the use of pistols with silencers, the use of backup cars, the choice of conducting the abductions on rainy days, a command of Hebrew, the renting of hideouts in areas to avoid arousing suspicions and suggestions to refrain from announcing the outcome of the kidnapping until the victims were secured in a safe house. Fatah is reported to believe that Ismail Haniyeh has given the go-ahead to Palestinian cells to pursue such tactics in order to “bring the prisoners affair to an end.” The difficulty confronting the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades which has an on-going debate on the issue is the coordination between the PNA and Israeli security services which makes executing such operations difficult. Several prior incidents, such as the murders of Givati soldier Gal “Gavriel” Kobi and Baruch Mizrahi, a police superintendent, displayed exceptional, high-level skills, strict compartmentalization, and careful preparations for an escape route, features shared by the kidnapping. These elements resemble the carefully planned abductions of IDF soldiers by Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border. Since 2013, the IDF and the Shin Beth have foiled between 54 and 64 kidnapping plots. The PA said it had foiled 43 of them.The high success rate (95%) in blocking such plots is due to the very close cooperation between the security forces of both sides. Hamas has put considerable effort into kidnapping attempts through its large network.

A week into the search for the missing youth, Avi Issacharoff cast doubts on the premise for West Bank operations, which in his view have 'targeted the weak' – since Hamas has neither a large or strong presence there- and argued that the operational order, if there was one, came from either Gaza, or abroad, perhaps Ankara-based deportee Saleh al-Arouri, or Khaled Mashaal, who appeared to hint a month earlier in replying to a letter from an imprisoned Hamas leader, after Netanyahu reneged on releasing a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners, that the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades would be his reply. Issacharoff concluded however that, "There isn’t a smoking gun to prove the Hamas leadership is complicit in the kidnapping." Two top commanders of the al-Qassam Brigades have so far avoided arrest, but suspicion also exists that a Salafi cell, specializing in stolen cars, and expelled from Hamas in Hebron for its religious extremism, might be responsible.

Hitchhiking debate in Israel

As events unfolded, the dangerous nature of hitchiking in what Israelis refer to as "the territories" prompted a debate, regarded by some in the settler and religious Zionist communities as a kind of victim blaming, about the practice of hitching rides on roads in the Palestinian territories, widely regarded as a cavalier and irresponsible habit for the costs involved in redeeming anyone who is captured. The normal Israeli practice is one where drivers pull up, declaring their destination, and, by their accent, allowing potential hikers at trempiada (hitchhiking stations) an opportunity to examine the cues, before they accept or decline a lift. Such hitchhiking has long been a hallowed method of travel among Israelis, but as abductions and killings of hitchhikers, mainly IDF soldiers, began to take root in the 1980s, one incident in October 1994 led to the passage of regulations that forbade military personnel from resorting to this method of travel. To hammer the message home, recruits doing basic training are required now to view "Snuff films" that highlight the dangers, and military police "abduct" and punish recruits who do not take it seriously.

Israeli governments have not regulated civilian recourse to hitching, and laws delegate responsibility to parents, expecting them to advise their children. The practice however remains popular among the dati leumi community of religious Zionists for several reasons: many of them, as in this case, have children boarding in West Bank settlements, in areas with a strong Palestinian presence and with poor public transport facilities. Haaretz reported that for mitzvah-observant adolescents, it is "a rite of passage, a way of life, a declaration of independence and of ownership of the land". Retired Brigadier General, Nitzan Nuriel, a former counter-terrorism officer in the Prime Minister's Office, declared on Israeli television that hitchhiking had an ideological edge: it made a statement about who owns the territory, which both Palestinians and most of the world regard as occupied.

Reactions

Israel

A social media campaign was started on Friday advocating for the safe return of the teens under the hashtag #BringBackOurBoys. The campaign was initiated by graduates of Haifa University's online Hasbara program, established to teach students how best “to use social networking sites to defend government policies” and “utilize online platforms to convey a pro-Israel message.” The campaign's label attempted to make the link between the then-recent #BringBackOurGirls campaign following the Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping in Nigeria, though that campaign was started by independent Nigerian internet activists while the Israeli campaign was initiated by a group trained to promote and defend the Israeli government's polices. On 15 June, around 25,000 people gathered for a prayer at the Western Wall for the release of the kidnapped teenagers.

In spite of security cooperation with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be trying to use the incident to score political points against the recently formed Palestinian unity government. An Israeli government official stated to Reuters news agency that Israel was looking to use the search as a pretext for a wider crackdown on Hamas and were looking into the legal aspects of deporting Hamas leaders from the West Bank. A Hebrew-language Facebook page calling on PM Netanyahu to assume his responsibilities and requesting that a Palestinian "terrorist" be executed every hour until the three youths are restored to their families, gained 10,000 thumb-ups within hours.

With a perception in Israel, expressed by Thane Rosenbaum, that the sympathy long lavished on Israel is dwindling, the government stepped up hasbara efforts abroad, especially in Brazil where the 2014 FIFA World Cup has dominated the world's attention. An aircraft trailed a #BringBackOurBoys banner along a Rio de Janeiro beach. The families of the missing boys went to Geneva to address the UN's Human Rights Council.

• On television, Netanyahu declared that "Anyone trying to harm Israeli civilians will be harmed in return."
• Israel's Economic Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel will make membership of Hamas a 'ticket to hell', branding it one 'of the most “lethal, barbaric organizations in the world.” Both the PA and Hamas, he affirmed, formed a 'complete culture where Israel is [perceived as] Satan.'
• 15 June. Moshe Ya'alon cited the kidnapping as "additional testimony to the cruelty and seething hatred that guides the terror groups in our region."
• 'Israel has decided to perform a root canal to uproot everything green in the West Bank,' reported on Israel's Army Radio, green also being the colour of Hamas.
• Israel's ambassador to Italy, Naor Gilon, declared that "Europe backs Hamas' government and the kidnapping of children and Israeli civilians."
• 'We're witnessing the unrestrained brutality of Islamic terrorism, both in Israel and around us.' Netanyahu to Ban Ki-Moon.
• 'Not only are the kidnappers terrorists, but so is Hanin Zoabi'. Avigdor Liberman, writing in Facebook of his Knesset colleague.
• Rabbi Dov Lior said the abduction was God’s punishment for anti-religious legislation in the Knesset and Israel’s readiness to abandon parts of the Land of Israel. Yuval Diskin countered: If so, why did God arrange for religious boys to be kidnapped if he was angry with secular Israelis?
• The Haredi Yated Ne'eman claimed that government policies aimed at drafting yeshiva students into the army against their will was the cause of the abductions.

• 15 June. Jews and Muslims who work fields as part of the Shorashim/Judhur cooperative project near where the kidnapping took place met and discussed their distress for several hours.
• 17 June. Jews many from the Gush Etzion and Muslims held a joint prayer session at the kidnapping site. Rabbi Michael Melchior said Islamic clerics were concerned and demanded the youths' immediate release, and Israel's distress was shared by Palestinians. Jerusalem Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Hawa recited the Al-Fatiha chapter of the Quran, adding that 'there is a wall between our two nations, and we hope to remove the wall separating the hearts of humans.'
• In an interview with Globes Yishai Fraenkel, uncle of the missing Naftali Frankel, recounted that he had received "no few messages of support and encouragement from Palestinian sources" who had said they were repulsed by the kidnapping and were "praying for the boys' welfare".
• Human rights organization B'Tselem condemned the kidnapping of the three students and called for their immediate release, saying "any deliberate attack against civilians is absolutely prohibited". They also cautioned Israeli authorities to uphold human rights and avoid collective punishment of the local population in their efforts to bring the students home safely.

Palestinian National Authority

The Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas' office released a statement condemning the kidnapping and the Israeli response of raids and arrests. At U.S. urging, Abbas was working closely with Israel to coordinate the search for the teens. A PA spokesman stated that holding Palestinian authorities responsible for kidnappings in Area C of the West Bank,where Israel exercises full military control and prohibits a Palestinian police presence plays them in an impossible position.

The Palestinian Authority’s official newspaper marked the kidnapping with a cartoon that spoofed the World Cup logo. Three hands hold the globe in the FIFA World Cup logo, but in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, three hands held small helpless figures with their hands up in surrender. While the World Cup logo says “Brazil” under it, the spoof says Khalil, the Hebrew name for Hebron, a city near the site of the kidnapping.

A cartoon on a Fatah Facebook page presented the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers as mice caught on three hooks on a fishing rod. Each mouse was emblazoned with a Star of David, and the title of the cartoon read “Masterstroke.” A picture on the same Facebook page showed a hand with words written on three of the fingers. Read in succession they said: “Three Shalits, long live Palestine.”

Hamas, calling the kidnappers ‘heroes, condemned the PNA collaboration with Israel to track down the culprits as a moral stain. High-ranking members of Hamas denied the group had any involvement or foreknowledge of the incident. In social media, many Palestinians criticize the strong emphasis placed by Israel on the teenagers' disappearance to the detriment of Palestinian suffering, citing the case of two Palestinian boys shot dead by Israelis at a protest in Beitunia during a Nakba Day protest on 15 May 2014.

On Twitter In response to the IDF campaign, Palestinian sympathizers appropriated the hashtag as their own, drawing attention to both Palestinian prisoners in Israeli gaols and Palestinian children killed by Israeli actions. One mentioned 5,271 Palestinian political prisoners, 192 administrative detainees, 17 women and 196 children. Senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials have stated that kidnapping Israeli soldiers and settlers is the only route to obtain the release of Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian Fatah and Hamas activists called on Palestinian shopkeepers and businessmen in Hebron, via Facebook, Twitter and other social media, to destroy any CCTV footage that could be used by Israel to help locate the teens. Fatah activists in Hebron also confiscated security cameras in order to frustrate the search.

Fatah's Facebook page posted a cartoon mocking the kidnapped teens, depicting them as rats dangling from a fishhook. The rats were marked with black yarmulkes and Stars of David, stereotypical attributes of Jews.

In the Gaza Strip, families of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel celebrated the kidnapping by handing out sweets to passersby from a protest tent which had been erected to express solidarity. Gazan Palestinians also released a song on social networks mocking the kidnappings, and called for additional abductions. A Palestinian group mounted a video on Youtube parodying the abduction, in a fictional scernario feating an “Abu Saqer el Khalili Brigades, the Kick Ass Branch”, apparently taking the event to be a Jewish plot with Arab complicity while mocking Islamic extremism.

• Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi stated that the kidnappers were not terrorists, but frustrated people resorting to such measures 'until the citizens of Israel and the public sober up and relate to the suffering of others,' mentioning the mothers of Palestinians who are being detained without trial.
• 'Three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped, but the two Palestinian kids who were killed [on Friday] were not even mentioned [in your broadcast]? The blood of Jews is more precious than the blood of Palestinians?' Hanin Zoabi.
• Hamas parliamentarian Salah Bardawil:"We are capable of igniting a third Intifada which is an irrevocable right that will go off when more pressure is exerted on the Palestinian people."
• 'I don’t plan to punish anyone based on suspicions or because Netanyahu claims something. If Netanyahu has information, he should update me and we’ll take care of it according to our laws.' Mahmoud Abbas.
• 'The world cannot stand by while Israel, the occupying power, commits such grave breaches of international law.” Hanan Ashrawi.

International

17 June. Netanyahu expressed disappointment over the tepid international response to the kidnapping.

• United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon released a statement condemning the abduction, expressing "deep concern on the trend toward violence on the ground and attendant loss of life, including today of a child in Gaza as a result of a recent Israeli airstrike." He expressed solidarity with the families of the abducted, called for their immediate release and called for restraint on both sides. After the dead bodies were found, Ban Ki-moon condemned the murders of the three Israeli teenagers, calling them a "heinous act by enemies of peace" that aim to entrench division and distrust and widen the Middle East conflict."
• In response to proposals in the Security Council to make a statement to the press condemning the kidnapping, and the collective punishment and deaths of Palestinians during Israel's operations on the West Bank, no agreement could be found: the U.S. representative Samantha Power said that any form of words critical of Israel would constitute a 'red line' for Americans.
• United States said that it was "very concerned" about the well-being of the teens, and that it was working with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resolve the situation. After the dead bodies of the three teenagers were found, the US Secretary of State John Kerry made a statement saying "the news of the murder of these three Israeli teenagers -- Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach -- is simply devastating. We all had so much hope that this story would not end this way." US President Barack Obama responded to the deaths by sending his condolences to the families of the teenagers and condemning the "senseless act of terror against innocent youth."
• United Kingdom After the dead bodies of the three teenagers were found, David Cameron described their deaths as an "appalling and inexcusable act of terror".
• France President François Hollande released a statement saying he was "shocked," "strongly condemn[ed] the cowardly murder[s]," and "extend[ed] his sincere condolences to their families and to the Israeli people and authorities." He attended that he "express[ed] his concern in the face of the increased violence in the West Bank and Gaza," "condemn[ed] the rocket fire from Gaza into Israeli territory," and "call[ed] for everything to be done to prevent any further casualties and the risk of an escalation of violence."
• European Union's ambassador to Israel tweeted that he was "deeply concerned" about the events and was hoping for the safe return of the teens. Catherine Ashton's office condemned the kidnapping after five days, in the wake of Israeli official expressions of disappointment. On 28 June the EU reiterated its call for the safe return of the youths, and, in view of the escalating violence and the killing of several Palestinians, urged both sides to exercise exercise maximum restrait and for Israel to use ("proportionate means only") in its endeavours to free them. After the dead bodies of the three teenagers were found, the EU's ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, tweeted that he sent condolences to the Israeli government on the "despicable" murders, "with hope that perpetrators are soon arrested."
• Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird expressed deep concern over the event and urged Palestinian security authorities, "who have been trained through Canadian and US leadership", to make every effort to ensure the safe return of the children to their families.
• Netherlands After the dead bodies of the three teenagers were found, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans issued a statement saying that the Dutch government heard the news of the murder "with profound sadness and horror. These boys were in the prime of their lives and have been the victim of a horrific crime. The government of the Netherlands hopes that their killers will be apprehended soon and brought to justice."
• Spain condemned the kidnapping, along with Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, and called for restraint.
• Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan wrote to Netanyahu: "...I assure you that we are in solidarity with you, as we believe that any act of terrorism against any nation or group is an act against our common humanity. We unequivocally condemn this dastardly act, and demand that the children are released unconditionally by their abductors."
• Holy See The Vatican condemned the killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank as a "hideous and unacceptable crime" and a obstacle to peace, calling the news of the deaths "terrible and dramatic".
• Quartet envoy Tony Blair posted a tweet saying that the abduction and killing of "these three young people was a heinous and wicked thing to do."
• Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, Bulgaria and Norway all condemned the kidnapping of three Israelis in phone conversations with him.

See also

• 2013–14 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks
• 2014 in Israel
• 2014 in the Palestinian territories
• Kidnapping and murder of Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon (Hamas,1989)
• Kidnapping and murder of Nissim Toledano (Hamas, 1992)
• Kidnapping and murder of Yaron Chen (Hamas, 1993)
• Kidnapping and murder of Nachshon Wachsman (Hamas, 1994)
• Murder of Koby Mandell and Yosef Ishran (13 & 14 years old, 2001)
• Kidnapping and murder of Eliyahu Asheri (18-year-old high school student, Popular Resistance Committees, 2006)
• Kidnapping of Gilad Shalit (Hamas, 2006–11)
• Kidnapping of Alan Johnston (release secured by Hamas, 2007)
• Kidnapping and murder of Vittorio Arrigoni (captors arrested and sentenced to prison terms by Hamas, 2011)

External links

• Operation Brother's Keeper at The Jerusalem Post
• West Bank kidnapping at Haaretz
• Kidnap Crisis at Arutz Sheva