Overnight Israel conducted sweeping arrests of over 80 Hamas operatives as the Israeli army dragnet continues in the search for three teenage students kidnapped by terrorists, with efforts concentrated around the city of Hebron, 16 miles south of Jerusalem, according to reports.
The three, Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gil-Ad Shayer, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, were apparently seized late Thursday night as they tried to get a lift to Jerusalem from the road near their school. The Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups have said for years they are working to kidnap Israelis for use as bartering chips to get convicted terrorists released.
The international community has demanded the immediate release of the boys, with American and Canadian officials leading the call from several nations that ”condemns those aiming to instigate conflict.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Iran-backed Hamas terror organization of being behind the latest attempt.
Those who perpetrated the abduction of our youths were members of Hamas – the same Hamas that Abu Mazen made a unity government with; this has severe repercussions… We are currently focusing all of our efforts on bringing the abductees back home.
Israel Radio Palestinian affairs correspondent Gal Berger described the Hamas efforts to pursue their military ambitions.
Berger said many of the Hamas prisoners released in the 2011 exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit are “pulling the strings both in Gaza and abroad today that their single goal is to restore the Hamas military infrastructure in Gaza.”
There is a Hamas military wing team in Gaza that is trained for the single purpose of restoring the military infrastructure and carrying out these types of missions – kidnappings. We know that there were many attempts like this where we know that those who pulled the strings are Hamas in Gaza in order to carry out a kidnapping in the West Bank and in this way to try as much as possible distance itself from an Israeli response in Gaza if the kidnapping was carried out in the West Bank.
“There is definitely (a Hamas) connection,” Berger said.
In Gaza, Hamas released a video calling for more kidnappings, while some Palestinians handed out candies to celebrate the abductions.
[Photo: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]