Hamas Military Wing Admits It Kidnapped and murder Three Israeli Teens.HT: Forward.
A senior Hamas official has admitted that the organization’s military wing was behind the kidnapping of the three Israeli boys — Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, 16 — who were found dead in June, according to Hebrew-language reports in the Israeli media.Israel’s Channel 10 aired a video Wednesday in which Hamas official Salach Al-Aruri credits Al-Qassam Brigades with organizing the kidnapping.
Prior to this statement, Hamas had denied responsibility for the kidnapping, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to allege that the organization was behind it. Meanwhile, analysts suggested that a rogue Hamas cell, which does not take its orders from Gaza, was responsible.
After stating that Al-Qassam Brigades was behind the kidnap-murder, Al-Aruri went on to say, “There are some who say that this operation was carried out by your brothers in the Al-Qassam Brigades, who carried it out on behalf of the Al-Qassam people who are in prison and who have gone on hunger strike.”
The Hamas official did not identify the three Israeli boys as “soldiers,” as the organization had previously done. Instead he referred to them as “settlers.”
Al-Aruri made the comments during a conference organized by the World Association of Muslim Scholars in Turkey. His remarks come on the heels of a re-escalation of violence between Hamas and Israel, and the latter’s apparent attempt to assassinate the head of Hamas’s military wing, Mohammed Deif. That strike instead resulted in the death of Deif’s wife and infant son.
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