An alleged prime suspect in the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, in mid-June, has been officially charged with organizing and financing the crime, according to Israeli security officials.Israeli security service, Shin Bet, accused Hossam Qawasmeh, arrested on July 11, of organizing the June 12 kidnapping and spending some 220,000 shekels ($61,300 US) on weapons and cars used in the crime.
The charge sheet, seen by AFP, indicated that Qawasmeh was indicted in a military court for ‘transferring enemy funds,’ carrying out services for an ‘illegal’ organization (democratically elected Hamas) and ‘deliberately causing the death’ of the three Israelis.
It was noted that Qawasmeh had reportedly asked and obtained the money from his brother Mahmud, ‘a Hamas operative who had been expelled to Gaza.’
The boys were shot almost immediately after their abduction, according to AFP, and their bodies were discovered on June 30, in the immediate vicinity from which they reportedly went missing.
Critics of the official story said that, despite knowledge of the youth’s deaths, the Israeli government withheld information for weeks as it engaged in a massive arrest campaign, across the West Bank, which led to the abduction and detention ofover 700 individuals unrelated to the crime.
See: New Reports Show That Murder of 3 Israeli Teenage Settlers Was Not Carried Out by Hamas
Just prior to these incidents, Israel had initiated an arrest campaign against Popular Resistance Committee memebers. (See: imemc.org/article/68022 & 65730)
Nearly a dozen Palestinians were killed and more than hundred injured in the ensuing raids and clashes, in the events leading up to the recent military offensive on the Gaza Strip which led to the violent deaths of over 2,000 Gaza residents, most of whom were civilians.
See: Names of Palestinians Killed in the War on Gaza since 8 July
Qawasmeh‘s two suspected accomplices, Marwan al-Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Eisha, have yet to be found.
To be noted, Israeli authorities recently released three admitted participants in the brutal murder of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir, who was tortured and burned alive by Israeli settlers in late July.
