Search Intensifies for Kidnapped Israeli Students

Israeli security forces were joined by elite IDF units in an ongoing search for three yeshiva high school students, who Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu confirmed Saturday night “were kidnapped by a terrorist organization.”

The three students were identified as Gilad Shaar, 16, from the settlement of Talmon; Naftali Frenkel, also 16, from Nof Ayalon near Modi’in, who holds dual Israeli and American citizenship; and Eyal Yifrach, 19, from Elad near Petah Tikvah.

“Our boys were kidnapped by a terrorist organization. There is no doubt about that,” said Netanyahu in a statement released to the press after meeting with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF chief Benny Gantz.

“We are in the midst of a widespread operation to locate and bring back the three young yeshiva students. I spoke with their parents, and I told them that we are doing everything possible and more to bring back their boys, who are also our boys,” said the prime minister.

The three are students at Mekor Chaim High School Yeshiva in Gush Etzion, presided over by Rabbi Adin (Even Israel) Steinsaltz, who asked all to pray for the safe return of Yaakov Naftali ben Rachel Devorah; Gilad Michael ben Bat Galim; and Eyal ben Iris Teshura.

He was joined by the Chief Rabbis of Israel, who issued a joint statement calling on members of the public to recite Psalm 121 and pray for the safety of the boys. The rabbinate had also called on all Jewish women to light Shabbat candles and say prayers in merit of the missing youths.

They were last seen at a hitchhiking spot near Hebron on Thursday night. The GPS signals from all three cell phones stopped working at the same time, lending greater credence to the probability that they were abducted. An ongoing investigation is also continuing into a burned out car that may be linked to the missing boys.

Security forces have been out en mass—using drones, roadblocks, house searches, and armored vehicles—combing the Hebron and Bethlehem areas for clues.

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said he instructed the army to raise their level of alert and prepare for any possible scenario, and dispatched elite IDF commando units to assist in the search.

“The goal is to figure out what happened before they disappeared, to investigate our way backwards. So far, we haven’t found any items belonging to the two out on the field,” a senior army source told Ynet News.

He added that the search was now focusing on the intelligence front, and that the IDF, police and Shin Bet security agency were holding a situation evaluation every few hours.

Never Made It Home’

A relative of one of the missing teens reportedly said the families received an update from the IDF and police about the disappearance.

“He just disappeared, never made it home,” the relative said. “His parents are worried, praying, hoping for the best. We’re all praying this incident ends on the good side.”

A spokesman for a settlement in which one of the missing teens resides said that during the night, when the son failed to return home and didn’t answer his phone, his father reported him missing to the police. At the same time, family members were searching for the teen at his friends’ houses.

“At 8 a.m., we received texts. We were asked if we knew where the boy was, and we were asked to wake up our children to see if he’s staying over at one of the homes,” the spokesman said.

At first, the family members thought the teen had just forgotten his keys and went to sleep at a friend’s house, as he had done before.

“As soon as we realized he was nowhere to be found, the atmosphere in the settlement became very grave. People were hiding in their homes … we opened an operations room to provide residents with information, and organized a mass prayer and read from the Book of Psalms so this incident ends on a good side,” the spokesman continued.

The disappearance is all the more ominous in light of recent Shin Bet discoveries of several attempts by terror cells to kidnap Israeli soldiers or civilians to be used as bargaining chips in an effort to secure the release of Palestinian terrorists.