Hebron under curfew as IDF closes in on terrorists holding 3 Israeli boys

DEBKAfile Special Report June 15, 2014, 9:44 AM (IDT)

Five days after their disappearance, heavy IDF Special Forces units are tightening the siege on the Palestinian terrorist organization, which snatched Naftali Frenkel, 16, Gil-Ad Sha’ar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, Thursday night. Early Sunday, June 15, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered a curfew clamped down on the Hebron district and the shutdown of southern West Bank exits in the direction of the Gaza Strip. Detentions continue of dozens of Palestinians suspected of direct complicity in the abduction or possessing relevant information.

Special army units and the Shin Bet continue to scour Hebron and the towns and villages to the south for leads to the whereabouts of the boys and their captors: They are focusing on Dura, where the burnt car was found, Yata, Halhoul, the Al Fawar refugee camp and the caves riddling the surrounding hills.

According to the local Palestinian radio station Hebron FM, the investigation has narrowed down to three local Palestinian clans, Al Jamal, Abu Zaina and Abu Aysha.
Suspects’ homes are being ransacked one by one.

DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources say that there is little room to doubt that the abduction was the work of a secret Hamas operational cell on orders from its ringleaders, who are identified as Salah Arur, working ut of a secret base in Istanbul, Abdul Rahman Raymanat, Mazen Fuka’a and Ibrahim Hamad, who is serving time in a high-security Israeli jail.

The man pulling the strings in Hebron and most likely of the operation itself is Yusari al-Jamal.

The scraps of evidence pieced together show that the kidnappers and the three boys had reached the secret hideout where they are holed up at present less than an hour after switching cars at Dura. The abduction car was torched and left there, later to be taken to Israeli police forensic labs for examination.

Israeli search units are still looking for that hideout.

To stay concealed, the kidnappers maintain total hush, which may explain why their controllers have not issued any statements or demands. Their motivation has been left up in the air. Were the three boys taken as hostages for the release of Palestinian prisoners? Or were they victims of a spectacular, savage terrorist operation per se?
The ringleaders and the boys’ captors may be able to stay in loose touch by two possible means capable of evading electronic detection:

1. Foot messengers assigned their tasks in advance of the attack;

2. The old pre-cellphone point-to-point telephone line. The two ends are easily concealed by earth or foliage, accessible only to the two users, and the line between them proof against electronic eavesdropping.

The Israeli search was hobbled from the start by the delay in discovering the abduction.

At 10:30 pm Thursday night, the police station at Kiryat Arba, Hebron, received a call from one of the three boys. All he had time to say was: We’ve been kidnapped.”
The officer at the desk thought it was a prank and did not pass the information on to the army. An hour and a half later, the station decided to send a cruiser to take a look at the Gush Etzion junction. The officers returned reporting they had seen nothing amiss.

By then, the boys had already been taken to the terrorists’ hideout. Eight precious hours were lost before the search got underway.

June 15, 2014 | 7 Comments »

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7 Comments / 7 Comments

  1. @ CuriousAmerican:

    CA,

    While Hamas/Fatah may (I repeat “may”) not have explicitly authorized it, they have created the (as the left likes to call it) “climate of hate” which emboldened the kidnappers. Or, more likely, they knew about this from some source (the Palis have a lot of informers in the population) and decided that even if they did not explicitly authorize it, this would serve their purposes and did nothing to stop it.

  2. This is what Israel gets for the Gilad Shalit swap. And America will see something like this because of our surrender on the Taliban 5.


  5. US is an accessory to terror, Israeli minister says
    Uzi Landau intimates Obama administration’s recognition of Hamas-Fatah government was factor in abduction of 3 Jewish teens

    “The willingness of the US administration to effectively recognize the Abbas-Hamas government causes damage to the security of Israel’s citizens and encourages terror,” Landaus’s office said in a statement Sunday.

  6. Arabs are blabbermouths and braggarts, which is why this may be the work of only a small group.

    I doubt Abbas or Hamas authorized it. Most likely a splinter group with some ridiculous name.

    May the boys return safe and unharmed.

  7. “Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered a curfew clamped down on the Hebron district and the shutdown of southern West Bank exits in the direction of the Gaza Strip”

    Curfew and exits shutdown are meaningless as long as Israel continue to provide them with electricity, fuel, goods, and free health care in Israeli hospitals, just to mention a few, among many other things.

    While three innocent kids have been kidnapped on Thursday, the wife of the Chief Terrorist Abbas has been hospitalized on the same day for a surgery.

    While three innocent kids are currently in distress in some dungeon, the top terrorist’s wife is convalescing in a Tel Aviv hospital under heavy security in a private room, with no roommates.

    Arabs spend their time to plan and organize abductions, stone rock attacks, deliberate arson and ambushes, and terror attacks.

    While some of our ours called Naftali Bennett or Dany Dayan plan to remove the anti-terror fence, to allow unlimited Arab freedom of movement in Judea and Samaria, to improve their livelihood and to strengthen Arab presence in our Land.

    How should we refer to it: democracy or democrazy?