Published time: June 20, 2014 11:14
Palestinians militants from various armed factions,
including Hamas, attend a news conference in Gaza City June 17, 2014.
(Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
Hamas is promising to “open the gates of hell” if
Netanyahu’s government expels its leaders from the West Bank to Gaza in
connection with three missing Israeli teens. The rescue operation resulted in
280 arrests and a death of a Palestinian teen.
With Operation Brother's Keeper unwinding in the West
Bank, the Israeli government and army are set to find Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer
and Naftali Frankel, who were allegedly kidnapped in the West Bank a week ago, at any cost.
Israeli soldiers take part in an operation to locate
three Israeli teens near the West Bank City of Hebron June 17, 2014.
(Reuters/Ammar Awad)
The situation in the Palestinian territories is
deteriorating, with the IDF conducting multiple arrests and Palestinian
militants firing rockets toward Israeli settlements.
The Israeli leadership maintains the teens were
abducted and views Hamas as the prime suspect.
The Israeli teens “were kidnapped by Hamas,” Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We had no doubt of that. It's
absolutely certain. Hamas repeatedly has called for the kidnap and murder of
Israeli citizens.”
Netanyahu will regret his actions against the
Palestinian people and Hamas, the organization’s spokesperson, Sami Abu Zuhri,
said at a press conference dedicated to Israel’s West Bank rescue operation,
promising to repel the Israeli West Bank crackdown within days.
The latest information suggests that the IDF has
already arrested 280 Palestinians in a massive crackdown operation in the West
Bank. Among the arrested there are over 50 Palestinians from the 1,027
prisoners recently freed as part of the deal to secure the release of Sergeant
Gilad Shalit.
During the search for three missing teenagers, Israeli
soldiers killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammed Dudin, who was shot in
the chest during a clash between Israeli soldiers conducting arrests and locals
in the village of Dura, south of the West Bank city of Hebron.
The Netanyahu government has threatened to expel
Hamas’s leaders from the West Bank to Gaza.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that if Israel
realizes its threat of expelling Hamas leaders to Gaza, Israel would be "opening
the gates of hell.'
Blindfolded young Palestinians dismantle weapons
during a military-style graduation ceremony at Fajer Al-Entesar (dawn of
victory) summer camp, organised by the Hamas movement, in Gaza City June 19,
2014. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
“The Intifada is the greatest event in the history of
the Palestinian people, and it renews itself every time there is an escalation
in Israel's aggression,” Abu
Zuhri said. “Resistance through every channel is the legitimate right
of the Palestinian people, to liberate the land, the holy places, and the
prisoners.”
"We are capable of igniting a third Intifada
which is an irrevocable right that will go off when more pressure is exerted on
the Palestinian people," Hamas
official Salah Bardawil announced at a rally in support of the director of the
al-Aqsa TV network detained by Israel on Wednesday. Hamas would not stay idle
if Israel “continues with its crimes in the West Bank,” Bardawil
added, as cited by Ma’an.
Netanyahu is pressing the Abbas administration to
disassociate itself from Hamas.
“Abbas [must] dissolve the union with this murderous
terrorist organization [Hamas]. I think that's important for our common
future,” Netanyahu said.
Palestinian news agency Ma'an cited a senior Hamas
official on Thursday as saying that Hamas could start another Intifada, yet
keep the Palestinian unity government in place.
President Abbas chimed in Wednesday, saying: “Those
who carried out the kidnapping want to destroy us.”
“Israel is using the disappearance of the three boys
as an excuse to launch an attack on the Palestinians,”Abbas said, stressing that a single act has put
hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank under Israeli
siege, which is seen as “collective punishment.”
“The policy of collective punishment imposed by the
Israeli government is a violation of the international law,” Abbas’s office said in a statement.
The Israeli military has closed most of the Hebron
region and sealed off crossings into Gaza as the search for the missing teens
goes on. Also, they have banned West Bank men under 50 from traveling to Jordan
through Allenby Bridge.
An Israeli soldier takes position during an operation
to locate three missing teenagers, in the West Bank city of Hebron June 18,
2014. (Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)
“These revenge tactics are tantamount to collective
punishment under international law," Fuad al-Khufash, the director of Ahrar, a
Palestinian rights group, told Al-Jazeera. “They are unjustified and
merely serve to alleviate the fears of the Israeli people,” he said,
specifying that arrests took place in Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Nablus,
Ramallah and Tubas.
Palestinian radicals from Hamas lashed out at both the
Israelis and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is assisting Tel Aviv in
the rescue operation.
Abbas’s position does not reflect the mood of the
Palestinian public, said Abu Zuhri.
Israel only understands language of kidnapping,
Palestinian Liberation Organization’s official Jibril Rajoub said Thursday,
stressing though that he personally does not favor abductions of both
Palestinian and Israeli citizens.
President Abbas called the arrests of the people who
already spent decades in prison “a blatant infringement on the release
agreement.”
The methods of the rescue operation are only driving
the violence further, as Palestinians in the Jenin area are throwing rocks and
fire bombs at IDF forces.
Israeli territory has also been attacked with handmade
rockets from the Gaza Strip. The Israel Air Force launched retaliation strikes
in return, hitting five “terrorist sites” in in northern and central Gaza.
“The IDF will not tolerate attempts to harm our
[Israeli] citizens and soldiers, and will operate against all elements that
instigate terror against the State of Israel,” the military said following the strike.
Ma'an news agency cited a Gaza health official who
said that six Palestinians were wounded in the strikes.
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