BICOM

Israel’s security cabinet met yesterday to approve the continuation of the ongoing operation to locate the three teenagers kidnapped almost two weeks ago.

Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel, both 16, were abducted 12 days ago while hitchhiking in the West Bank. Since then, Israel has conducted a large-scale military operation to locate the missing teenagers, especially targeting Hamas activists, with arrests made across the West Bank, particularly in the Hebron area.

A further 17 arrests were made overnight on Tuesday and Ynet reports that weapons were found and confiscated near Jenin. Although the scale of arrests and searches appeared to be reducing, the security cabinet yesterday evening decided that the operation will continue. It also resolved to tackle the payments made by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons who have been convicted of terror-related offences. However, it was unclear what measures might be taken.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is expected to place the fate of the kidnapped youngsters at the top of the agenda when he meets US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris later today. Lieberman is also expected to meet with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

Yesterday, Israel’s President Shimon Peres met with US President Barack Obama at the White House. According to Peres, Obama told him, “Our hearts are with the kidnapped teens and the nation of Israel … The US will continue to help and to do whatever it can together with the State of Israel in order to return the kidnapped teens to their homes.”

Also yesterday, the mothers of the three kidnapped boys met with a delegation of European Jewish leaders at the Knesset and appealed to them to do all that they can to secure the release of their sons. Bat-Galim Shaer, mother of Gilad commented that, “the world must understand that kidnapping children is not legitimate.”