Pages

Monday, June 30, 2014

Bodies of teens found (updates)

From NYT:
Israeli military searchers found three bodies believed to be those of the missing Israeli teenagers who disappeared more than two weeks ago in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, senior government officials said Monday. The Israeli government called an emergency Cabinet meeting.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the official announcement, said the Army had found the three bodies buried “in a field near Hebron” and were waiting to inform the families before releasing information.

“They know it’s the three, they will know for sure after they do the autopsy."The official said the three appeared to have been shot to death, likely “very close to the kidnap” time, and that the prime suspects had still not been caught.

Times of Israel confirms.

The bodies were found in an area between Halhul and Karmei Tzur on Monday afternoon. Israeli security forces, which had been conducting extensive searches in the area, closed it off and declared it a closed military zone.
There are no words.


UPDATE: Apparently investigators pretty much knew that the news would be bad, according to Sheera Frankel at Buzzfeed (although she is not always the most reliable reporter):

Israeli officials have imposed a gag order on many details of the search for the teens. That gag order initially included a phone call made from one of the teens to police, as well as evidence found in a burnt-out car in the Hebron area.

BuzzFeed spoke to an Israeli official involved in the case, who confirmed that during the police call a gunshot can clearly be heard. The car, he added, had clear evidence of foul play. Over the last week. Israeli soldiers could be seen digging through rocks and dredging wells in Hebron in the search for the teens.

“We have been operating, for some time now, with evidence that these boys were killed,” he said. “It is with a heavy heart that we realized we were looking for bodies.”
And the police dispatcher didn't report it???

UPDATE 1.5: TOI contradicts this account, which is why I don't usually trust Frankel.

Recognizing, too late, that the car was not an innocent Israeli vehicle, one of the teens called the police at 10:25 p.m. and whispered, “We’ve been kidnapped.” The call was transferred immediately to a senior female officer, who continued to ask questions but received no reply. The call lasted for 2:09 minutes and was then cut off. The officer called the number eight more times, but received three busy signals and reached voicemail five times.

The kidnappers, apparently realizing that a call had been made, shot the three teens dead soon afterwards in the backseat of the car, military sources said.


UPDATE 2: The Muqata reports:

8:44pm IDF Ambulance humvee transporting the bodies of the boys attacked by arabs....windows smashed
Imagine anyone at +972 will condemn attacking an ambulance? No, they are too busy predicting that Israel will react to the coldblooded murders of three boys.