The 2014 Gush Etzion kidnapping and murder refers to the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank during June 2014. The victims, Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel, were Israeli students aged 16 and 19. On the evening of 12 June 2014, the three teenagers were hitchhiking in the Alon Shvut settlement in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank when they were abducted.
The Israel Defense Forces immediately initiated Operation Brother's Keeper (Hebrew: מבצע שובו אחים, romanized: Mivtza Shuvu Ahim) in search of the three teenagers. On 30 June, their bodies were found in a shallow grave near the town of Halhul. Israeli authorities accused two members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha, of carrying out the abduction and murder. As part of the operation, Israel arrested around 350 Palestinians, including nearly all of Hamas' West Bank leaders. The suspects were killed during a standoff with Israeli security forces on 23 September 2014, leading to the end of the operation.
The incident gained significant international attention and escalated tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, leading to an increase in violence and retaliatory actions and eventually triggering the 2014 Gaza War.
Background
2013 was a calm period with the November 2012 ceasefire being largely respected, despite 50 rockets fired by Palestinians and 10 airstrikes by Israel. According to the Palestinian Centere for Human Rights (PCHR) 44 Palestinians were killed and over 100 injured, while the Israeli Security Agency reported six Israeli fatalities (all but one from the West Bank) and 44 injuries. The first half of 2014 saw an increase in tension manifested by a higher rate of injuries. Among Palestinians there were 43 fatalities in the first half of the year plus 1860 injuries. Tension was also increased by Israel's opposition to the formation of a Hamas-Fatah unity government, with threats of sanctions and the burgeoning issue of prisoners and the violation of the Shalit agreement Mutual attacks on each other by Israel and Gaza continued, as did the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Mainstream western media ascribe the initiation of the major 2014 conflict to the kidnapping of the three Israeli teenagers. Some news analysts believe that earlier clashes also played a role in the chain of events, such as 15 May, when Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian teenagers during a protest near Beitunia as part of the Nakba Day commemorations; an autopsy report published on 9 June proved the death of one of them to be due to "live fire," i.e. not "rubber bullets."
The Israeli Foreign Ministry website emphasized rocket fire from Gaza as being the reason for the IDF mission into Gaza.
Victims
Eyal Yifrach, 19, lived in El'ad, Naftali Fraenkel (also spelled Frenkel), 16, was a dual Israeli-American citizen and lived in Nof Ayalon. Gilad Shaer was a resident of the Israeli settlement of Talmon. Eyal Yifrah was a student at the Shavei Hevron Yeshiva on King David Street in Hebron. The other two were students of the Mekor Chaim yeshiva at Kfar Etzion in the West Bank's Area C under full Israeli administration.
Suspects
Initial suspected perpetrators
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Hamas killed the teenagers. But opinions were divided within Israel's security services as to whether or not the two suspects had direct ties to Hamas. On 26 June, the Israel Security Agency identified two Hamas members as key suspects in the kidnapping, whom Palestinian police noted, had gone missing since the night of the kidnapping. High-ranking members of Hamas denied that the group had any involvement or foreknowledge of the incident. The two named suspects hail from the Qawasameh clan, notorious for consistently acting against Hamas's policies. Hamas political chief Khaled Mashal said he could neither confirm nor deny the kidnapping of the three Israelis, and he congratulated the abductors, because "our prisoners must be freed from the prisons of the occupation."
Initially a number of groups, some previously unknown, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings: The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (subsequently denied); a West Bank Branch of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Brigades of Global Jihad, Ahrar ar-Khalil (Liberators Battalion of Hebron), and Regiments of Hezbollah. It was not clear how true their claims were, and the middle three were not considered credible.
Suspects arrested
After the kidnap of the Israeli teens, Israel commenced Operation Brother's Keeper in the West Bank. Israel killed 9 Palestinians and raided 1300 properties including commercial and residential buildings. 800 Palestinians were arrested without immediate charge or trial. On 5 August 2014 Israel announced that Israeli security forces arrested Hussam Kawasme, in Shuafat, in connection with the murders. During interrogation, Kawasme admitted to being the mastermind behind the attack, in addition to securing the funding from Hamas. Kawasme stated that after the boys were killed, Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha drove to his house, where the three proceeded to bury the victims in Halhoul, the land Kawasme purchased only a few weeks prior.
By the time of his arrest, Kaswasme had shaved his beard and received a fake passport, in what was believed to be part of a plan to escape to Jordan.
Officials stated that additional people arrested in connection with the murders were still being held, but no names were initially released.
On 20 August, Hamas member Saleh al-Arouri, who lived in Turkey, claimed Hamas's involvement in the abduction and murder. He continued to describe the perpetrators as heroic. Hugh Lovatt of the European Council on Foreign Relations labeled al-Arouri's claim was "suspicious", saying it might have reflected a desire to assert his relevance within the Hamas leadership or, alternatively, was accurate, reflecting a power struggle within Hamas itself. On 21 August Hamas leader Khaled Mashal congratulated the kidnapping, but claimed Hamas leadership had no prior knowledge of the abductions and murders and had learned about them through the Israeli military.
The following day, NGO Shurat HaDin contacted US Attorney General Eric Holder to request extradition of al-Arouri. Although Turkey and Israel do not have an extradition agreement, the US and Turkey do, which it can use to extradite those who commit terrorist acts against US citizens.
Suspects killed
The two suspects, Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha, were staying in a house in Hebron, when IDF soldiers and Israeli counter-terrorism Yamam members surrounded the building at dawn on 23 September, in an attempt to arrest the suspects. Israeli forces opened fire on the building and reportedly called on the two suspects to come out. With no response the Israeli force began using a bulldozer to bring down the building. According to Israeli forces, one of the suspects partially rose out of a hole and began firing a rifle, whereupon Israeli forces shot him. After this suspect fell back into the home, likely dead, Israeli forces again opened fire on the house, utilizing grenades and other explosives this time, after which both men were confirmed deceased.
Both Hebron governor Kamel Hmeid and Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil described the suspects as martyrs, with the latter belatedly insinuating that Hamas had in fact been responsible for the kidnap and murder of the three Israeli teens. Hamas leader Khaled Mashal also called the suspects "martyrs" and "heroes."
Investigation conclusion
The investigation concluded that the kidnapping operation's costs ran to NIS220,000, a sum procured by Hossam Hassan Kawasmeh (40), with the assistance of his brother, Mahmoud, who was exiled to the Gaza Strip in the Gilad Shalit exchange in November 2011, to purchase the two vehicles and weaponry. The cars were purchased from Nuh Abu-Eisha, and the weapons from Hamas operative Adnan Mahmad Izzat Zru (34), both Hebronites. Hossam Kawasmeh's attempt to escape to Jordan, thwarted when he was arrested in the Shuafat refugee camp on 11 July, was assisted by his relatives Hisham Kawasmeh (45) and Jamil Kawasmeh (38), as well as Hassan Kawasmeh (45), a Hamas militant. Two other Hebronites, Ahmad Ibrahim Mahmad Kawasmeh (64) and his brother, senior Hamas operative Arafat Ibrahim Mahmad Kawasmeh (50), were involved in helping the perpetrators go into hiding, the latter concealing them on his property.
On 6 January 2015, Hussam Qawasmeh was sentenced to three life terms in prison for the murders, along with being assessed a compensation payment of $63,000 to the victims' families.
Sequence of events
Prelude
According to Israeli investigations, the seizure and killing of the three was organized by Hussam Qawasmeh, who had received $39,000 from his brother Mahmoud in Gaza, via a go-between still at large. The money financed the purchase of three M-16 rifles, a jeep, and the Israeli car, which was bought from a used-car dealer in Hebron after it was stolen from the settlement of Tzur Hadassah. Altogether, he met with Marwan five or six times before the kidnapping. The plan was to conceal one kidnapped Israeli in Marwan Qawasme's barbershop in Hebron, then transfer him to Marwan's aunt's vacant house. A first attempt on 10 June failed to find any hitchhikers. There was no intention to release the boys: from the outset the plan, considered amateurish and not professional, envisaged murdering the captives. The plot of land where they were buried had been purchased to that end some time earlier, and a refuge to escape detection had been prepared in an old house near Tufah where the two suspects hid in a disused cesspit for five days.
Week 1 (12–19 June)
Netanyahu asserted that the attack originated from PA-controlled areas, and criticized the Fatah-Hamas pact.
In the first week, Israel added a further three to the six combat brigades already present in the West Bank. Close to 40 battalions were engaged in rounding up suspects, notably the Paratroopers' 35th Division and the Kfir's 900th Division. Other specialized groups, such as the Duvdevan Unit, the Egoz Reconnaissance Unit and the Airborne Rescue And Evacuation Unit 669 supplement the search force. Skylark mini UAV drones were deployed, and the Yahalom combat engineering unit conducted tunnel searches. Fifty Bedouin IDF trackers were also used.
Day 1
Late into the night of Thursday, 12 June, teenagers Yifrach, Fraenkel, and Shaer were waiting at Geva'ot Intersection, west of the settlement of Alon Shvut in the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem, soon after 22:15, looking to catch a ride heading west on Route 367 toward Beit Shemesh and from there to locations in central Israel where each of them lived. The kidnappers intended to kidnap one Israeli. Apparently Yifrach, after accepting a ride, waved to the other two to join him. The Palestinians, afraid of giving their identity away if they spoke Hebrew, didn't dare object. After the car veered off from the declared direction of Ashkelon, the three realized they had been kidnapped. Shaer then telephoned the police at 22:25, whispering, "I've been kidnapped." Eight attempts were made to page the caller's cellphone, without checking its ownership, and his whispered remark was taken to be one of a number of pranks made that night. No check was made to find out the phone's owner, nor whether he was missing. Within days, Israeli investigators, though lacking conclusive proof, strongly suspected the teenagers had been killed, and, if so, knew where the victims' bodies would probably have been dumped. Subsequent analysis of the tape revealed what the police failed to realize at the time, that the murders had occurred while the hotline operator had been listening.
Four and a half hours passed before Shaer's family finally phoned the Talmon security coordinator at 3:10 am to inform him their son Gil-Ad had not returned home. Only then did the security establishment take the case seriously, and Shin Bet and the IDF were alerted by the police. According to the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency, the army succeeded in tracing the call to the Sanjar region, the last cellphone signal being made at 23:20 in the Hebron area, when Fraenkel's and Shaer's cellphones had been switched off. Meanwhile, at 1 a.m. on Friday morning, Marwan knocked on Hussam's door and said, "I've murdered three Jews."
A gag order regarding the abduction was immediately placed on Israeli news services. The presumed identities of the kidnappers, acolytes of senior Hamas members, were known almost from the beginning to everyone in Hebron, but kept from the Israeli public; in lieu of concrete details, rumours proliferated. Controversy soon raged in Israel over the police delay in reporting the call. At 11:00 on 13 June, a "Hannibal" alert (meaning 'kidnapping') was issued.