Have the 'Palestinians' kidnapped an Israeli civilian?
On Monday, the 'Palestinians' (specifically the Popular Resistance Committees, a Gaza-based terror group) claimed to have kidnapped another Israeli in the 'West Bank' (i.e. Judea or Samaria). The IDF checked the report and dismissed it. Today, the PRC made the claim again:"The Palestinians claimed they would present documents belonging to the kidnapped settler. Then we will be able to judge whether the story is true," a senior Israel Defense Forces officer told HaAretz on Tuesday.
In fact, there is an Israeli from the Samarian town of Itamar who has been missing since Sunday, and suspicion is now growing that he has been kidnapped. Eliyahu Asheri, 18, disappeared Sunday night while attempting to hitchhike from Beitar (in Judea, part of the Gush Etzion bloc) to Itamar. He is a student at the pre-military academy Neve Tzuf in the southwestern hills of Samaria. This does not make him a soldier by the way. It just means that he's preparing to be drafted. He is still a civilian. He was last seen near Beitar, Rabbi Avihai Ronsky, the rabbi of Itamar, told The Jerusalem Post.
According to a PRC statement that was issued around midnight on Monday night, the kidnapping was part of an operation called "Horsemen's Rage," which is intended to avenge the targeted killing of the group's leaders by Israel.
"One of our elements in the West Bank succeeding in kidnapping the settler as part of a chain of reactions against the Zionist attack, and as revenge for the blood of Palestinian martyrs," said the statement, which was issued by the Salah a-Din Brigades, the PRC's military wing.
"We have information about the attack, but we will not pass it on at this point in order to keep the ball in the Zionist court, and so that the Zionists continue in their [military] confusion. We will allow actions on the ground to speak for us," continued the statement.
The police are investigating to see whether there is a connection between the PRC claim and the missing youth from Itamar. "We're looking into reports of a missing person and we're relating to them very seriously," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.Update 4:35 PM
Some of you may recall that two weeks ago, the 'Palestinians' attempted to kidnap two 9th grade girls from a Samarian hitchiking post.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:21 PM
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