Palestinian officials fear 'regional crisis' with Israel over kidnappings

The search is still ongoing two weeks after three Israeli teenagers went missing in Hebron, in the southern West Bank, despite the Israeli military conducting a campaign of arrests netting hundreds of Hamas activists and leaders. Since June 13, the Israeli army has searched more than 1,100 homes of Hamas activists and more than 100 caves and caverns.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Palestinian security official told Al-Monitor that the search, being conducted by Israeli intelligence in coordination with Palestinian agencies, has focused on two possibilities. “The settlers may be alive somewhere, and this is the stronger possibility, because the perpetrators may want to conduct an exchange deal. Thus, we are in a race against time to reach the detention place for fear that [the teenagers] might be harmed and to bring them back alive, as ordered by President [Mahmoud] Abbas. … Another possibility is that the settlers were killed during the kidnapping because they resisted the kidnappers or because the kidnappers were logistically unable to hold them for a period of time. But they were likely not killed, because Israel would pay a low price in any upcoming deal if [the hostages are dead].”

Journalist Awad Rajoub from Hebron noted, “The area of ​​Gush Etzion, where the settlers were kidnapped, is under complete Israeli control, which imposed a blockade on it and closed off its exits as well as the streets that link it to the rest of the area. [Israel] heavily deployed its forces there and launched massive incursions and searches in all areas. … Hebron is surrounded by settlements and is not connected to the outside world. It has an area of up to 1,000 square kilometers [600 square miles] and a population of 700,000. Israel dealt with the large area by turning the inhabited areas into ghettos, installing iron gates at the entrances, which are closed when needed, to control movement in and out. That would block the kidnappers' movements if they wanted to get out.”

Al-Monitor met with a former official from the Preventive Security Service in Gaza who participated in the investigation of the Hamas kidnapping of the Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman in late 1994. The official, nicknamed Abu Ammar, said, “It is clear that the perpetrators of the Hebron operation did not use a cell phone nor any electronic device because they know they [cannot control] the electronic signal once it leaves the device. All means of Palestinian communication, land and electronic, are infiltrated by the Israelis. They have likely gotten rid of their communications device for fear that Israel may be able to pinpoint its location.”