As Israeli kidnapping rescue is planned, security ramps up

Shortly after the June 12 kidnapping of three Israeli teens  — Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frenkel — Palestinian security forces found a torched Hyundai i35 with Israeli license plates near Hebron, just a few miles south of the Highway 60 junction where the teens were abducted. Israeli authorities have neither confirmed nor denied whether it is the car used in the kidnapping.

As of press time, if Israeli intelligence did have insights into the boys’ whereabouts, they certainly weren’t being publicized.

Speaking with the Journal by phone from Israel, Deputy Defense Minister and Knesset member Danny Danon said only, “We are in a preparation to rescue, and we hope to rescue them alive.”

Asked why the government is certain that Hamas is behind the kidnappings, neither Danon nor Israeli Consul General in Los Angeles David Siegel divulged any information, but reiterated what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday — it was Hamas.

“I can say that there’s no doubt about that,” Siegel said.

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