Israel Matzav

Eliyahu Asheri

For the second time this week, I'd like to help you put a face to a name. This is 18-year old Eliyahu Asheri of Itamar. This afternoon, I told you that Eliyahu had been missing since Sunday night when he left Beitar in the Gush Etzion bloc to return to his pre-military Yeshiva in Neve Tsuf. The 'Palestinians' claim to have kidnapped a revenant, and if this is true - as appears to be the case - they may have Eliyahu.

Itamar Rabbi Avihai Ronsky told The Jerusalem Post that Asheri, a student at the Neve Tzuf pre-military academy, was last seen near Beitar, attempting to hitchhike from Beitar to Itamar. A fellow student at Neve Tzuf told police that he had spotted Asheri trying to hitch a ride at the French Hill hitchhiking post in Jerusalem on Sunday night.

Asheri's father arrived at the Ariel police station to report his son missing on Tuesday afternoon. According to police, his parents had been under the impression that their son was in Neve Tzuf, and in Neve Tzuf, Asheri's companions believed that he was with his family.

Asheri's disappearance was coupled with a number of alarming announcements and intelligence leads coming from Palestinian terror organizations that led security officials to fear the worst.

I discussed some of those announcements regarding the 'Palestinians' kidnapping a 'settler' in my earlier post. In addition, security sources claimed that they had received two independent pieces of intelligence information, one indicating that Palestinians had killed an Israeli on Sunday night, and one indicating that Palestinians were holding the body of an Israeli.

Ma'an, a 'Palestinian' news agency, is reporting that Abu Abeer, the spokesman of the An Nasser Salah Addin Brigades, an armed group affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) again assured Ma'an that brigades' members kidnapped an Israeli 'settler' in the 'West Bank'. The spokesman threatened the Israeli forces saying, "The battle of kidnapping soldiers has begun." "Resistance", he said, "will not release those captured unless the occupation 'kneels' and accepts the conditions."

According to Ma'an, An Nasser Salah Addin Brigades had previously confirmed to Ma'an their kidnapping of the 'settler', without giving any clarifications, saying that they "will not release any information about the kidnapping for the time being in order not to assist their Israeli enemy." Abu Abeer added in this more recent statement that the PRC "has taken advantage of the whole world being busy with the captured Israeli soldier in Gaza," referring to 19-year-old Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured Sunday in a military operation by armed Palestinian groups, including the PRC, against an Israeli military base. The factions have made statements that they intend to trade the Israeli soldier for Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.

Asheri is the oldest of six children. His father is an immigrant from Australia.

The IDF confirmed that ever since the attempted kidnapping of two teenage girls near the Tapuah Junction ten days ago, security forces have been received general warnings of kidnapping attempts in Judea and Samaria. The IDF spokesman's office said that they had been working together in recent days with settlements' security officers in order to warn revenants as to the danger of kidnapping attempts.

Update 12:18 AM

HaAretz now reports that the IDF is checking a report of a dead body in Ramallah. Hashem yerachem (may God have mercy).

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:55 PM