Israel steps up arrests amid search for kidnapped teens
Israeli forces have detained more than 200 Palestinians, mostly Hamas activists, in their biggest crackdown on the militant group in years. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnappings last week.
Israeli forces have detained more than 200 Palestinians, mostly Hamas activists, in their biggest crackdown on the militant group in years. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnappings last week.
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Israeli soldiers arrested 41 Palestinians in the West Bank early on Tuesday while searching for three Israeli teenagers, Israel Defense Forces officials said, underscoring the military鈥檚 crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank while they search for the missing teens.聽
Israel blames Hamas for the disappearance of three seminary students who were hitchhiking in the West Bank last week. Israeli forces have detained more than 200 Palestinians, mostly Hamas activists, in 鈥渢he biggest West Bank crackdown on the militant group in almost a decade,鈥� according to the Associated Press.
The overnight search included about 1,000 soldiers, who shut down a shop manufacturing weapons, confiscated pistols, explosives, grenades, and ammunition, and seized computers belonging to a Hamas-affiliated group, according to Israel鈥檚 Haaretz. About half of the arrests were in Nablus, the West Bank city north of Hebron where earlier searches concentrated.
In a meeting Monday, officers decided 鈥渢o expand the treatment of Hamas in the West Bank, and use the upcoming days to arrest anyone 鈥榠nfected鈥� with Hamas,鈥� an unnamed senior military officer told Haaretz.
Hamas, an Islamist movement that does not recognize Israel鈥檚 right to existence, has neither accepted nor denied responsibility for the kidnapping, Reuters reports.
Also on Tuesday, the European Union condemned the kidnapping and called for the safe return of the three teenagers, identified as Eyal Yifrach,19, and Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16. Israel had criticized the EU for not speaking out against the incident earlier. The US, Canada, Great Britain, and Spain have all condemned the attack.
海角大神鈥檚 Jerusalem bureau chief, Christa Case Bryant, explains that Israel views the kidnappings as the 鈥渋nevitable fruit鈥� of the reconciliation deal announced in April between the two main Palestinian factions, Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Fatah, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel鈥檚 criticism of the Palestinian Authority could undermine its close security cooperation with its security forces, the Monitor reported:
Tension is rising in the West Bank, where residents are angry that the search for three missing teens are making international headlines, while a Palestinian prisoner hunger strike and the detention of Palestinians by Israeli forces go unnoticed, The New York Times reports.
There are also rampant conspiracy rumors in the Palestinian territories, questioning whether the kidnapping actually occurred, the Times reports:
At the core of the dispute are "fears and frustrations on both sides,"聽 the Monitor explains:
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