Shin Bet has admitted their failure to come up with any positive conclusion regarding the whereabouts of the alleged ‘abduction’ of the three Israeli settlers in Hebron.According to Al Ray, Israeli journalist Ben Caspit quoted an official from the Israeli security service as saying that they failed in its mission to find the abductees and that an operation should have been frustrated in its infancy.
“It’s about two young men who were held in Israeli prisons in the past and should have been well under surveillance before the operation,’ he said.
Three Israeli teens, one said to be holding US citizenship, were reported missing late on Thursday, June 12, somewhere between Gush Etzion settlement bloc and the Alon Shvut settlement.
In the weeks that followed, Israel launched an extensive and continuing series of arrest raids and military assaults across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in which over 600 Palestinians, including political officials were arrested, aorund 170 of which were placed under administrative detention, without charge or hope for a trial.
The bodies of the three missing settlers were uncovered near Halhoul, north of Hebron, over two weeks later, in a field not far from where they reportedly went missing.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured in ongoing clashes, since the bodies tuned up. Thirteen Palestinians have been killed since June 12.
From the first reports of the alleged abduction, Israel quickly pointed to Islamist political faction Hamas in naming a target suspect. Hamas has persistently denied the accusations and evidence to suggest that Hamas or any other Palestinian group or individual was behind the teens’ disappearance has never been presented.
‘This operation was not the result of chance, it took long to plan for,’ the official was further quoted as saying.
Related: Analyst: High Level Plan Behind Missing Settlers
