Intifada 3? Kidnapped Israeli citizens might be a flashpoint

[Ace Pace]

Hamas calls for an open intifidata

Hamas has recently been 'restored' to being a legitimate government by the Fatah.

Hamas called on Palestinians Friday to declare an intifada throughout the West Bank and to confront Israeli "forces of Occupation," be it through a popular uprising or individual action.

Hassan Badran, Hamas' international spokesman in Gaza, posted Friday on Facebook calling for Palestinians in the West Bank to impede the Israeli army's movement around the West Bank, particularly in the Hebron area, where three Israeli teens are feared kidnapped.

"This is a chance to widen the sphere of resistance and return the West Bank to its natural place as the focal point of the struggle and resistance," Badran wrote.

Earlier Friday, Khaled Al-Batsh, a senior member of Islamic Jihad, called on Palestinians to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Speaking at a Friday prayer in Gaza, Al-Batsh said kidnapping soldiers is the most efficient way to bring about the release of Palestinian prisoners.

This happened as the result of an apparently successful kidnap attempt of 3 settlers, one of them holding a U.S. citizenship.

Three teenagers hitchhiking in the West Bank have been missing since Thursday night and are feared to have been kidnapped, security officials said. Two of the youths are 16 years old, and the third is 19. One of the teens reportedly holds U.S. citizenship.

Large forces, including the Border Police and the Israel Police, are searching for the teens around Hebron. A command center was set up at the entrance to Kiryat Arba in the West Bank, and roadblocks have been erected in the area.

The teens, students at the Makor Chaim yeshiva, were thought to be hitchhiking to Modi'in, a city halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. When they did not arrive home or make contact with their families, the yeshiva informed the authorities.

Security forces are focusing on obtaining intelligence on the incident. Israel Defense Forces chief Benny Gantz has ordered combat units to remain on high alert. "Everything we are doing in these hours, and in the coming hours, is an attempt to go back and retrace what happened there in that area, and understand where they are now and what happened to them," said a senior IDF official.

IDF Spokesman Moti Almoz said during a press briefing that forces have been searching for the teens since Friday morning. He cautioned against speculation and rumors that have been circulating all day on Israeli social media.

Prime Minister Netanyahu held an emergency meeting Friday afternoon at the Kirya, the IDF's Tel Aviv headquarters. Among the officials taking part in the meeting were Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharanovich, Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.

According to an official statement from the Prime Minister's Office, "Israel sees the PA as responsible for the well-being of the kidnapped," adding that Netanyahu spoke with the families of the three missing teens and pledged he would do all in his power to locate them.

"I know you are suffering," Netanyahu told the families. "Be strong, the State of Israel will make every effort for your sons, and I promise to remain in contact with you."

Netanyahu ordered government ministers not to give interviews on the matter.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro has also been briefed that one of the missing teens reportedly holds U.S. citizenship.

On Friday evening, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni informally met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. At the meeting, Livni asked Kerry to approach Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority in order to bring about the release of the teens.

Livni is in London for the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, an international conference on war crimes and violence against women in conflict areas.

The Shin Bet security service has warned in recent weeks of increasingly frequent attempts to kidnap Israeli soldiers and citizens in the West Bank. According to Shin Bet data, in the past nine months there have been 11 cases of Palestinians incarcerated in Israel making contact with operatives in the West Bank in an attempt to carry out kidnappings.

In September, Israeli soldier Tomer Hazan was kidnapped and killed by two Palestinians who had invited him to the West Bank. Prosecutors say the kidnapping was part a plan to bring about the release of the killers' brother, in prison in Israel.

Some context is in order. Over the last year and a half there have been a number of public and quiet kidnapping attempts of Israeli soldiers, citizens, alongside a gradual increase in the number of random gunfire on travelling cars.

Coupled with the constant failure of the 'peace talks' (which neither side really wants) and we have a pretty good setup for another popular uprising.

[Irbis]

Do I miss something or does the idea of three teenagers wandering through what is in reality occupied country with a lot of unfriendly people sound kind of stupid? Almost Darwin Award level dumb?

[Raw Shark]

Do I miss something or does the idea of three teenagers wandering through what is in reality occupied country with a lot of unfriendly people sound kind of stupid? Almost Darwin Award level dumb?

Well, they are students at a school that primarily teaches religious texts, and were supposedly hitchhiking, which both support your theory in my humble opinion...

[Ace Pace]

Well, they are students at a school that primarily teaches religious texts, and were supposedly hitchhiking, which both support your theory in my humble opinion...

Two are from a school that is dual track (both secular studies and religious studies), the third is indeed from one of those piece of shit indoctrination camps.

Do I miss something or does the idea of three teenagers wandering through what is in reality occupied country with a lot of unfriendly people sound kind of stupid? Almost Darwin Award level dumb?

On paper (or knowing only from the media) what you say sounds accurate, but it's really not. The West Bank is seperated into 3 regions (A,B,C) and they were deep in C territory, which is (as per Oslo agreements) under Israeli control and security arrangements are made by the IDF. This is where 90%+ of the settlers live, the signs are in Hebrew, most people on the road are Israeli citizens and it's practically Israeli territory. This is not to say they should have been hitchhiking, but it's not exactly danger zone numero uno.

Hitchhiking in the C territories is a way of life, going from Efrat (the biggest settlement, more like a large town) to Jerusalem, hitchhiking is the simplest and fastest way of travel. Most people do it, it's organised (hitchhiking stops, mailing lists of who's leaving when, etc.). It's about the dumbest thing to do (and for example, IDF soldiers are forbidden from hitchhiking no matter what), but everyone does it and this is the first time in years anything similar has actually happened. From what I'm reading, the schools were the students were studying explicitly forbade hitchhiking.

[Ace Pace]

Haaretz is providing some numbers to what I originally stated, in 2013/2014 there have been over 44 foiled kidnapping attempts. Unlike the NSA's "stopped attacks" number, this sounds in the right ballpark.

[Grumman]

Haaretz is providing some numbers to what I originally stated, in 2013/2014 there have been over 44 foiled kidnapping attempts. Unlike the NSA's "stopped attacks" number, this sounds in the right ballpark.

Yeah, there's no doubt that the kidnappings happen - we've got the hostage exchanges to prove it.

[cosmicalstorm]

Its been 5 years, I figure they have reloaded the rocket/indoctrinated moron supply.

[eyl]

An unfortunate update :

IDF troops on Monday located the bodies of the three Israeli teens who went missing on June 12 while hitchhiking in the Hebron area of the West Bank .

The bodies of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Frenkel, 16, and Gil-Ad Shaer, 16, were found in the area of Khirbet Aranava.

Shortly before the announcement that the bodies had been found, the IDF said it was searching intensively in the area of Beit Kahil, north of Hebron.

The Israeli government had mobilized quickly on multiple fronts to locate the three boys, launching a massive social media drive using the hashtag #BringBackOurBoys, and enlisting international support.

Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the abduction and demanded the boys' return.

Meanwhile, the IDF embarked on exhaustive searches of the West Bank, arresting dozens of Hamas operatives and ransacking the organizations offices as part of what it called Operation Brother's Keeper.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had blamed the Islamist group almost from the moment the three boys went missing, and several days ago Israel released the names of two suspects in the kidnapping, both allied to Hamas.

The families of the three boys had also made impassioned public appeals for their return. Rachel Frenkel, Naftali's mother, even appeared before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 24, where she told the 47-member body that she was living "every mother's nightmare."

Frenkel told the council that it has a duty to fulfill and "much more can be done and should be done by so many."

On Sunday night, tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to support the families and demand the boys' return.

The Israel Police had come under fierce criticism after it emerged that an emergency call from one of the boys in the night they disappeared saying that they had been kidnapped was ignored. The police did not inform the IDF or Shin Bet that the boys may be missing until Gil-Ad's father arrived at the local station at 3am, some five hours after their disappearance.

The assumption at the moment seems to be that they were killed shortly after they were kidnapped, though that hasn't been conclusively confirmed yet.

[Sea Skimmer]

Its been 5 years, I figure they have reloaded the rocket/indoctrinated moron supply.

Yeah they have, particularly in Gaza where a lot of Libyan sourced weapons have come in more easily then the traditional supply line that went Iran-Sudan-Lebanon-Egypt-Gaza. Though since the Egyptian army took over that's been clamped back down on, the Morsi period was open season. I saw one estimate suggest Hamas now has at least 3,000 mil-spec artillery rockets in Gaza (comparison Hezbollah fired 11,000 in 2006) which would be much more effective then home made ones. Also lots of parts to make better home brews. And at least some anti tank missiles; scores as opposed to the ones or twos gotten in before. Not enough to win a war, but if Israel lost even ten tanks that would probably be the end of any attempt at IDF ground operations. Also mortars, obsolete to sort of obsolete MANPADS and small arms.

On the other hand the Israelis have taken some big leaps ahead in armed UAVs and stand off weapons like Spike-NLOS, and US Iron Dome funding keeps going up, parts of it are now being made in the US to enable even more aid spending, and the great wall of Israel is ever more complete and very effective at thwarting bombers. Hamas might start one, but I doubt they'll even get as not far as the last one did. Hezbollah is stronger then ever but they are now also sort of an enemy of Hamas on the battlefield, litterally. Hamas backed the Syrian rebellion, Hezbollah is heavily committed to saving Assad, decisively so even in terms of turning back the rebel push on the capital in 2013. It would be an utter disaster and negate all they gained in 2006 anyway. Though its hard to see any conflict that wont just completely play into Israeli hands. Its also hard to see how doing nothing wont either, particularly given events in Syria and Iraq.

[cosmicalstorm]

Israel is in a weird spot right now. Official Enemy of Assad and Iran despite the enemies enemy is friend part. Egypt turning from brotherhood-mania into a friend. Area close to country saturated with dumb weapons. A population obsessed with even minor casualties.
In a dream I had Israel became the first nation to design and use armed drones that autonomously selects human targets. They seem like they could really use some rapid anti artillery sensor system that replied with many guided missiles.

[Irbis]

I saw one estimate suggest Hamas now has at least 3,000 mil-spec artillery rockets in Gaza (comparison Hezbollah fired 11,000 in 2006) which would be much more effective then home made ones.

See, this is why I was saying in past threads that Iron Dome system based on guided missiles and not on radar guided guns like Tunguska or Loara doesn't make sense to me. Trying to shoot down so many missiles is going to bankrupt Irael, US funding or not, unless they back down on 'nothing goes through' policy.

Though, now that I checked, looks like they agreed with my armchair analysis from back then and develop supplementary Iron Beam system designed to address that. Still, I feel ordering some Loaras would be much more cost and target effective for now

[Sea Skimmer]

So once again your point is that you are ignorant. Iron Dome was developed because laser based systems were not yet ready and will not be for another few years at the least. Your ignorance of past history is the problem here as it has been before, not Israeli decision making. Iron Dome work started after lasers were already proven to be operationally unsuitable at considerable cost. This is not some big super obscure secret.

Guns are ineffective except at point blank range, and not even very good then unless firing guided projectiles which are themselves very expensive. So are the gun systems themselves. A single Tunguska vehicle costs about 15 million dollars with an effective range against aircraft of not over 3,000m and rather less against a rocket, even were we to assume that it could even engage such a target without cost increasing upgrades. Which it would need. And it can only engage one target at a time making it easily saturated in view of the short range, Iron Dome can control dozens of Tamir interceptors at once and has demonstrated a dozen plus simultaneous interceptors in combat. I have video of this around. The effective defended radius is much higher then any gun, around three times in fact which is a huge disparity in defended area, and very few men are required to operate it nor does it require significant maintenance. This is very untrue of any air defense gun.

The US is now developing an even smaller interceptor missile then Iron Dome for protection of troops in the field, range about 2km, having abandon a 50mm guided shell gun precisely because it offered no cost advantage, though its advanced phased array radar would have let it control several guided shells at once. In fact the US studied guns as large as 120mm for the C-RAM role in ordered to get more area coverage and concluded they simply offered no reasonable advantage over missiles when faced with salvo attacks. Lasers are ideal, they also have major weather limitations and can only engage one target at a time and remain immature and very expensive technology.

Israel is incapable of going bankrupt when the US is paying for the damn system in the first place anyway. Cost is now down to 35,000 per weapon and expected to drop much lower when US production is phased in on a large scale. The things are dead simple as missiles go. That means buying 3,000 of them costs around 100 million dollars which is nothing in the scheme of things. The radars to control the batteries are bigger investments, but they also provide counter battery coordinates to the IDF to target the launch positions with.

[eyl]

See, this is why I was saying in past threads that Iron Dome system based on guided missiles and not on radar guided guns like Tunguska or Loara doesn't make sense to me. Trying to shoot down so many missiles is going to bankrupt Irael, US funding or not, unless they back down on 'nothing goes through' policy.

Though, now that I checked, looks like they agreed with my armchair analysis from back then and develop supplementary Iron Beam system designed to address that. Still, I feel ordering some Loaras would be much more cost and target effective for now

Iron Beam is designed for different threats. And as it was explained back when you first made this point, guns would be ineffective (and not necessarily cheaper) given the area which needs to be defended (guns are more appropriate for defending small areas, ID is intended to defend multiple cities). This assumes that a Tunguska/Loara is even capable of intercepting such missiles; what I can see in Wikipedia indicates they can hit cruise missiles, which IINM are slower.

So once again your point is that you are ignorant. Iron Dome was developed because laser based systems were not yet ready and will not be for another few years at the least. Your ignorance of past history is the problem here as it has been before, not Israeli decision making. Iron Dome work started after lasers were already proven to be operationally unsuitable at considerable cost. This is not some big super obscure secret.

After Iron Dome was first proven against missiles in the field, there was an interview with Amir Peretz, who was the Minister of Defense who approved the development of ID. As he describes, it came down to a meeting where he had to make the final decision to go with either what would become ID or a laser-based system. The choice was ID in x years (don't remember exactly how many) or a superior laser system in x+10 years.

Guns are ineffective except at point blank range, and not even very good then unless firing guided projectiles which are themselves very expensive. So are the gun systems themselves. A single Tunguska vehicle costs about 15 million dollars with an effective range against aircraft of not over 3,000m and rather less against a rocket, even were we to assume that it could even engage such a target without cost increasing upgrades. Which it would need. And it can only engage one target at a time making it easily saturated in view of the short range, Iron Dome can control dozens of Tamir interceptors at once and has demonstrated a dozen plus simultaneous interceptors in combat. I have video of this around. The effective defended radius is much higher then any gun, around three times in fact which is a huge disparity in defended area, and very few men are required to operate it nor does it require significant maintenance. This is very untrue of any air defense gun.

NTM that in a city defense role, you need even more guns because your lines of sight are obscured; for that matter, unless you park your gun in the middle of the city (with all the problems that causes) the missile may never even enter your range envelope.

[Sea Skimmer]

So for a little more cost specifics. High performance autocannon rounds go for about 50 dollars a shot. The US Phalanx C-RAM fired multiple 200 round bursts per interception in combat, and still only had a 60-70% chance of destroying an interceptor, and only protected a 500m radius with that reliability. That means just one burst is 10 grand already, without considering costs like the barrels burning out constantly.

NTM that in a city defense role, you need even more guns because your lines of sight are obscured; for that matter, unless you park your gun in the middle of the city (with all the problems that causes) the missile may never even enter your range envelope.

To a certain point that can be mitigated by the fact that the rockets impact at very high angles, so you only have to look up, but that's a problem with most existing gun systems in the first place. They have fairly large blind arcs above themselves because the search radar was never meant to deal with this kind of thing. Iron Dome uses a sector scanning radar meanwhile which can be parked well away from the target area, negating its own overhead blind arc, though that isn't much of one because of the phased array design.

But a way cooler solution is putting the guns on top of buildings. Because the ROK actually still does this and has laws stating that while you are allowed to build a new building that blocks an existing field of fire, you then have to pay to put the gun on top of your new building via helicopter.




These are for countering low flying An-2 stealth biplane and helicopter attacks though as they pop over the hills that ring the city on basically all sides, manually aimed gun and all that.

[eyl]

So for a little more cost specifics. High performance autocannon rounds go for about 50 dollars a shot. The US Phalanx C-RAM fired multiple 200 round bursts per interception in combat, and still only had a 60-70% chance of destroying an interceptor, and only protected a 500m radius with that reliability. That means just one burst is 10 grand already, without considering costs like the barrels burning out constantly.

NTM that in a city defense role, you need even more guns because your lines of sight are obscured; for that matter, unless you park your gun in the middle of the city (with all the problems that causes) the missile may never even enter your range envelope.

To a certain point that can be mitigated by the fact that the rockets impact at very high angles, so you only have to look up, but that's a problem with most existing gun systems in the first place. They have fairly large blind arcs above themselves because the search radar was never meant to deal with this kind of thing. Iron Dome uses a sector scanning radar meanwhile which can be parked well away from the target area, negating its own overhead blind arc, though that isn't much of one because of the phased array design.

But a way cooler solution is putting the guns on top of buildings. Because the ROK actually still does this and has laws stating that while you are allowed to build a new building that blocks an existing field of fire, you then have to pay to put the gun on top of your new building via helicopter.




These are for countering low flying An-2 stealth biplane and helicopter attacks though as they pop over the hills that ring the city on basically all sides, manually aimed gun and all that.

Problem with that solution for intercepting rockets is that because of the limited range, you're going to hit them on the descent. Which may well mean you're firing at somehing above your own town, and any rounds you fire are going to come down eventually. ID, OTOH, can intercept at higher elevations and thus over open areas.

[Adam Reynolds]

Can Iron Dome do anything against tube artillery and mortars or is it optimized against rockets?

It would obviously be a harder target due to the fact that it is faster and smaller, not to mention massively cheaper than the interceptor missiles.

[eyl]

Can Iron Dome do anything against tube artillery and mortars or is it optimized against rockets?

It would obviously be a harder target due to the fact that it is faster and smaller, not to mention massively cheaper than the interceptor missiles.

Iron Dome is designed to intercept rockets.

The Iron Beam system mentioned above, which is currently under development, is apparently supposed to intercept smaller targets.

[Sea Skimmer]

It can intercept large caliber mortar rounds and artillery shells, and has hit the former out of Gaza. Never been combat tested against the later for obvious reasons. Mortar rounds aimed to only go a few kilometers can't be intercepted, but that's reaction time/flyout time limitation of Tamir as the target time of flight is simply too short.

Its big limitation is it is not capable of engaging very low angle targets such as UAVs or cruise missiles, all the more so against any form of clutter and now that Hezbollah has a demonstrated UAV capability that's become a big concern. With a laser employing optical fire control that isn't a problem, you can look through the lasers own optics to see exactly what it will hit.

Problem with that solution for intercepting rockets is that because of the limited range, you're going to hit them on the descent. Which may well mean you're firing at somehing above your own town, and any rounds you fire are going to come down eventually. ID, OTOH, can intercept at higher elevations and thus over open areas.

Tamir is also functionally limited to hitting the target on descent. It couldn't even try to hit the projectile rising unless the target fired from just about its minimal intercept range. The solution to bullets raining down is a reliable self destruct, ideally a two phase one for reliability based on both fuse and tracer burn, the resulting pieces are rather small. That's how the US got away with using Phalanx in the middle of Baghdad for years. Its also not like a 200lb Tamir interceptor doesn't send debris raining down too, it was just designed to make sure none of them would have much mass or else have very poor ballistics so they fall slowly. This issue isn't that big a deal on its own.

[Elfdart]

It's a real hoot watching Greater Israel fanwhores shrieking about how Israel isn't an Apartheid or Jim Crow state, when some of that country's finest citizens just re-enacted the lynching of Jesse Washington in retaliation for the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teens:

LINK

Kidnapped and slain Arab teen was burned alive – autopsy results
Published time: July 05, 2014 14:04
Edited tim
Soot found in the lungs of an East Jerusalem youth, whose funeral drew thousands on Friday, means the teenager was still alive and breathing when he was burned, according to the preliminary results of an autopsy.

The autopsy, carried out by Israeli doctors in Tel Aviv and attended by a Palestinian forensic expert, revealed that over 90 percent of the boy’s skin was burned and he suffered a head injury.

"The direct cause of death was burns as a result of fire and its complications," Palestinian Attorney-General Mohammed Al-A'wewy was quoted as saying by the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

Fire dust material was found in the boy’s respiratory system, which means "the boy had inhaled this material while he was burnt alive.” The final report on the autopsy will be issued following more lab examinations of the body’s tissue samples.
Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16, was kidnapped Wednesday in his neighborhood in Arab East Jerusalem. His charred body was found several hours later in a forest on the outskirts of the city.

Two weeks before the incident three Israeli youths went missing in the occupied West Bank and were found dead after 18 days of searches. Many believe Abu Khdeir’s killing was carried out in revenge by Israelis incensed at the killing of the three Israeli teens.

The Arab teen was buried as a martyr Friday. His funeral gathered thousands of mourners, who chanted “Intifada!” calling for an uprising against Israel. The funeral eventually turned into a rally with participants turning their anger on police, burning tires and throwing stones. The police responded with tear gas and stun grenades. Clashes continued through the night with unrest eventually spilling over from East Jerusalem into the West Bank.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Abu Khdeir's killing was “loathsome” and called for a quick police investigation.

“We’re trying to understand and get to exactly what took place and what was the background,” a spokesman for the Israeli police, Mike Rosenfeld, said as cited by the New York Times. “It’s critical, as far as the Israeli police are concerned, it’s critical for us to determine what the motive was.”

Palestinians have been infuriated to learn that one of the theories being considered by police in the teenager’s death is a “family honor” killing.

The same day Mohammad Abu Khdeir was killed, his cousin, Tarek Abu Khdeir, 15, an American citizen, spending summer in East Jerusalem with his uncle’s family, was brutally beaten and detained by police, human rights group Addameer reports.
“The continued state-sanctioned violence against children is unlawful and unacceptable,” Addameer’s statement reads.

The Council on American Islamic Relations called on the US State Department to intervene and help release Tarek, who is a high school student in Tampa, Florida.

The Israeli police say that the video of the beating is “edited and biased” and that Tarek was part of a group of masked Palestinians who resisted arrest and attacked the officers.

Of course he was. That's all those dirty Ay-rabs are good for: resisting arrest.

[cosmicalstorm]

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the killing was family-related or the result of some internecine feud. If that turns out to be the case I fully expect the fact to buried by newsorgs and dismissed as clever zionist propaganda.

[Raw Shark]

I wouldn't be surprised, but I wouldn't consider it the most probable answer, either. The people who're pissed off about the police at least considering it are being jackasses, though: Of course they have to consider it, it's their job to consider every possibility. Not that that excuses the cops for grabbing and beating up his 15-year-old American cousin for information, but we already knew that both sides of this conflict are capable of astonishing dickery, which is part of why we have the general IvP moratorium.

[eyl]

I wouldn't be surprised, but I wouldn't consider it the most probable answer, either. The people who're pissed off about the police at least considering it are being jackasses, though: Of course they have to consider it, it's their job to consider every possibility.

Thing is that while there have been murders of Palestinians by Jewish extremists before, kidnapping the victim first hasn't really been part of their MO in the past (not that that conclusively rules them out, of course) .

EDIT - looks like I posted too soon, I just saw that the police has apparently arrested several suspects and concluded it was an act by Jewish terrorists. I'll put up a link later (if no one beats me to it), the Internet conenction I'm currently on is working very slowly.

Not that that excuses the cops for grabbing and beating up his 15-year-old American cousin for information, but we already knew that both sides of this conflict are capable of astonishing dickery, which is part of why we have the general IvP moratorium.

Where did you get they were trying to get information from him?

EDIT - also, per the article I mentioned above, looks like he was released on bond and the condition he avoid Shoafat.

[Raw Shark]

Not that that excuses the cops for grabbing and beating up his 15-year-old American cousin for information, but we already knew that both sides of this conflict are capable of astonishing dickery, which is part of why we have the general IvP moratorium.

Where did you get they were trying to get information from him?

Idle speculation based on the situation at hand and general mistrust of the police when they claim things like, "That's not the whole video, but we don't have any of our own to contradict it," apologies for not being more clear about that.

[Elfdart]

The police have arrested six in the lynching.

Six were arrested Sunday in connection with the murder of 16-year-old Muhammed Abu Khdeir, whose burned body was found in the Jerusalem forest on Wednesday morning, police said Sunday.

The six, including a number of minors, are members of a Jewish extremist cell, leading police to believe that the act was most likely carried out by Jewish extremists in revenge for the killing of three Israeli teenagers earlier in June.

The suspects are from Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem and the settlement of Adam, police said.

“Apparently the people arrested in relation to the case belong to an extremist Jewish group,” an unnamed official was quoted by AFP as saying.

An official speaking on the condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that authorities believe the killing was “nationalistic” in nature.

According to Channel 2, days before the kidnapping and murder, some of the suspects had scouted out the area in East Jerusalem and attempted unsuccessfully to kidnap an Arab child.

The gag order on details was still in place but is expected to be lifted soon.

Video images showing the faces of two of the suspected kidnappers and murderers of Abu Khdeir were uploaded to YouTube earlier Sunday.

The footage came from a security camera that had been stationed on a building owned by Abu Khdeir’s father, Hussein, and was recorded on a mobile phone during a police investigation.

In the video, two young men are seen conversing with a third person, presumably Abu Khdeir, who is not visible in the frame. According to police, Abu Khdeir was forced into a vehicle moments later. After the kidnapping, several bystanders who witnessed the incident tried to chase the car before returning to Shuafat to notify Abu Khdeir’s parents. At 4:05 a.m, Abu Khdeir’s father called police. The teenager’s body was located within an hour, after his cellphone was tracked by police.

Palestinians alleged that Abu Khdeir was killed by Jewish extremists to avenge the killings of the three Israeli teenagers, who were abducted in the West Bank on June 12. Their bodies were found last week, and Abu Khdeir was killed just hours after their funeral.

Police initially said they were investigating various avenues in the teen’s death, including criminal or personal motives, while Israeli social media abounded with rumors that he had been killed because he was gay or as part of an ongoing family feud.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority attorney-general, Dr. Muhammed Abed al-Ghani al-Aweiwi, said that Abu Khdeir was burned alive, according to the preliminary findings of the autopsy.

Aweiwi told Palestinian news agency Ma’an that Abu Khdeir had sustained severe burns across 90 percent of his body, including his head, where he was also beaten.

He said flammable material was found in Abu Khdeir’s lungs and breathing passages, indicating he was still alive when he was set on fire. Aweiwi added that additional lab tests were needed and that the final autopsy report would be issued only after those tests were completed.

Palestinian pathologist Dr. Saber al-Alul took part in the autopsy carried out at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

In East Jerusalem, Abu Khdeir’s mother, Suha, welcomed news of the arrests but said she had little faith in the Israeli justice system.

“I don’t have any peace in my heart. Even if they captured who they say killed my son,” she said. “They’re only going to ask them questions and then release them. What’s the point?”

“They need to treat them the way they treat us. They need to demolish their homes and round them up, the way they do it to our children,” she added.

Abu Khdeir’s killing sparked widespread violent protests throughout East Jerusalem and in other parts of Israel. On Thursday, the parents of 15-year-old Tariq Abu Khdeir, Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s cousin, charged that their son had been beaten by Israeli police. The 15-year-old, who is a US citizen, was arrested in Shuafat during clashes between stone-throwers and Israeli riot police.

She has a point. The IDF inflicts collective punishment on Palestinians all the time. So of course they'll give a taste of it to the families and neighbors of these Ku Klux wannabes by blowing up their homes, right?

The sun will rise in the west before that happens.

[Ace Pace]

Well, I guess my title is about as accurate as possible.
Some notes, which I'm too busy to collate with the appropriate articles.

Re: The Jewish terrorists. The administration is so far acting appropriately, by harshly condemning the events and sending the police to work. Large segments of the religious right are also angry and my Facebook is full of posts by right wing religious thought leaders who are saying this is despicable.

She has a point. The IDF inflicts collective punishment on Palestinians all the time. So of course they'll give a taste of it to the families and neighbors of these Ku Klux wannabes by blowing up their homes, right?

To give the legalese answer, Israeli citizens are afforded more rights than Palestinians. This surprises no one.


More interesting is the series of spontaneous riots that are occurring both in Palestinian and Arab Israeli towns, which are not orchestrated by any specific Palestinian organization (though they are no doubt cheering them along). Which is eerily reminiscent of the leadup to the first Intifada.