West Bank – Israeli armed forces swept through half a dozen Palestinian towns on Monday and arrested more Hamas officials, expanding a search for three teenagers into a crackdown on the Islamist group accused of abducting them.
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In al-Jalazoun refugee camp, near the de facto Palestinian capital of Ramallah, Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli troops and army gunfire killed a 20-year-old Palestinian and wounded another, hospital officials said.
Israel says members of Hamas, which signed a unity deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in April, kidnapped the three seminary students. They disappeared on Thursday after leaving a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, chief of Israel’s armed forces, said the military was preparing to expand its operation.
“We have a goal, and that is to find these three boys and bring them home, and to hit Hamas as hard as possible – and that is what we are going to do,” Gantz said in broadcast comments, at a meeting with army officers.
“We are on our way toward a significant campaign. We will get our plans in order.”
Israeli troops on Monday rounded up dozens more Hamas activists, including senior figures, as part of a feverish search for three missing Israeli teenagers who Israel says were kidnapped by the Islamic militant group in the West Bank.
Israeli officials have vowed to crack down on Hamas and media said the government is considering possible deportations of Hamas leaders from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
The three teens were abducted late Thursday, while hitchhiking in the West Bank.
Since then, the military has conducted a massive search and arrested more than 150 Palestinians, including 10 Hamas legislators.
Among those rounded up early Monday was Abdel Aziz Dweik, speaker of the long-defunct Palestinian parliament and a senior Hamas figure.
In the northern West Bank, meanwhile, a 20-year-old Palestinian was killed by army fire in a clash between Palestinian stone throwers and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, said Palestinian hospital official Samir Saliba.
Israel says the three teenagers were kidnapped by Hamas. The incident has escalated already heightened tensions between Israel and the new Palestinian government, headed by Western-supported President Mahmoud Abbas and backed by Hamas.
Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist group, has condemned the alliance and said it holds Abbas responsible for the teens’ safety.
Hamas has praised the kidnappings, but has stopped short of claiming responsibility. Abbas aides have said the Palestinian Authority cannot be held responsible because Israel retains full control over the West Bank, despite limited Palestinian self-rule.
Israel’s Justice Ministry said it held a meeting Sunday to examine a number of possible punitive steps against Hamas. The Justice Ministry would not elaborate on the actions being considered.
Israeli media reported that the government was considering deporting Hamas figures from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, demolishing homes of Hamas members and taking sanctions against Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israeli intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz told Israeli Channel 10 on Monday that Israel would punish both Hamas and Abbas’ Palestinian Authority government.
“If we don’t exact a harsh price, we encourage these things. A harsh price has an effect of deterrence,” said Steinitz, referring to the suspected kidnapping.
The three youths, Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, disappeared Thursday night as they were heading home from a West Bank religious school. Frenkel also holds American citizenship.
The case has riveted the nation’s attention, receiving around-the-clock coverage in local media.
Also on Monday, Israel’s military said it carried out airstrikes on five weapons and militant sites in Gaza, following overnight rocket fire from the coastal strip into Israel. Two rockets were intercepted and a third fell in an open area in Israel, causing no injuries, the military said.
On the Gaza side, four Palestinians were lightly hurt, including a toddler, said Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra.
most of thoe buildings in the background look pretty new and pretty nice
The Israeli government will NOT deport anyone because of ‘world opinion’ and nothing will change because they are very weak, and will remain so. WE The ‘Religious Jews’ should do something to get the ‘chiloni’ out of office and we should step in to bring salvation. THIS WILL BRING ‘THE MOSHIACH!’ WE started ‘Israel’ and WE will FINISH It and bring peace and prosperity to ‘The Holy Land!’ (Of course ‘HaShem’ started it, but all the Avos, etc. were flesh and blood.) Thank you boruch hoffinger