Three Israeli teens were kidnapped today in the West Bank on Thursday including one American.
YNet News reported:
Security officials conclude meeting on missing, possibly kidnapped teens including American citizen; source places blame on Palestinian unity government.
Senior security officials informed US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro that one among Friday’s missing teens in the West Bank holds American citizenship at the conclusion of a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv Friday where the security situation was discussed as the result of the possible kidnapping.
A senior state source said after the meeting, “This event is a direct continuation of escalation in Judea and Samaria since Abu Mazen (Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas) allowed the terrorist organization Hamas to join the Palestinian government.”
sraeli security forces have been scanning the Bethlehem and Hebron area on Friday after three yeshiva students, aged 17-19, went missing Thursday night. Police was also checking whether there was a connection between a burnt car that was discovered near Hebron and the disappeared teens.
The Shin Bet and the IDF’s Central Command are treating the teens’ disappearance as a kidnapping by terrorists, because, among other things, their cell phones stopped broadcasting location signals at the same location they were last seen – between Kfar Etzion and the settlement Alon Shvut.
American ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro was informed that one of the missing Israelis is also an American citizen.
Israeli soldiers scour the countryside around the city of Hebron after the youths vanished [Reuters]