Israel continues crackdown amid searching for 3 missing teens
Israeli troops on Monday rounded up dozens more senior Hamas members and killed a Palestinian in a clash with stone throwers as a search for three Israeli teenagers threatened to escalate into further violence.
Israel’s military chief said on Monday that the army was readying far-reaching measures to recover the three Israeli teens who are allegedly abducted by Hamas militants in the West Bank last Thursday.
“We’re heading towards an extensive operation,” Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz told some senior officers at the army’s Central Command, as a massive manhunt for the three youths entered its fourth day on Monday.
He said the only objective is to “find them, bring them home, crack down on Hamas as hard as possible and move forward,” he said.
The comment comes as all branches of the country’s security forces continued combing the West Bank, with dozens of Hamas lawmakers and senior operatives arrested in raids across the region overnight and early on Monday.
The West Bank abductions came at a time when Israeli-Palestinian tensions were already running high after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formed a unity government with Hamas.
With senior Israeli officials now calling for a crackdown on Hamas and perhaps even the Western-backed Palestinian Authority led by Mr Abbas, there is growing concern of a major Israeli operation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has alleged that Hamas carried out the kidnappings but provided no evidence. He has also held Mr Abbas responsible for the fate of the teens and claimed the unity government created the atmosphere for the kidnappings.
Despite Mr Netanyahu’s verbal attacks against Mr Abbas, he does not want to see a collapse of the Palestinian leader’s self-rule government in the West Bank.
Mr Abbas condemned the kidnappings but also the Israeli actions that followed, including the widespread arrests and the killing of a 20-year-old Palestinian by Israeli army fire early on Monday, during a confrontation between stone throwers and soldiers.
Mr Netanyahu called Mr Abbas on Monday, a fairly rare contact between the two leaders, requesting help with efforts to rescue the abducted teens and arrest the kidnappers.
“The Hamas kidnappers came from territory under Palestinian Authority control and returned to territory under Palestinian Authority control,” Mr Netanyahu told Mr Abbas.
Palestinian officials have rejected Mr Netanyahu’s contention that the Palestinian self-rule government is ultimately responsible for the abductions, saying Israel is in overall control of the West Bank. The junction where the teens were last seen is under Israeli control and is commonly used by soldiers and Jewish settlers.
Senior Israeli cabinet ministers were meeting on Monday with the government reportedly weighing a series of measures, including the deportation of Hamas leaders from the West Bank to Gaza, where Hamas remains the de facto power despite the unity deal.
The three Jewish seminary students went missing late on Thursday while hitchhiking at a West Bank bus stop near the Palestinian city of Hebron. They were on their way home, to two towns inside Israel, and the third to a West Bank settlement.
Large numbers of Israeli troops carried out a massive search since then, going house to house in some areas.
Press journalist for HRO media – Khizer Hayat reports.
Category: Arab uprising
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