Operation Brother's Keeper

2014 kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers

Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel
Date	12 June 2014 (2014-06-12)
Time	Approximately 22:00 IDT (UTC+03:00)
Location	Gush Etzion, the West Bank
Outcome	The three kidnapped teenagers were murdered and their bodies found on 30 June.
Deaths	Naftali Fraenkel, 16, from Nof Ayalon Gilad Shaer, 16, from Talmon Eyal Yifrah, 19, from El'ad
Suspect(s)	2 Hamas members from Hebron: Marwan Qawasmeh (29) and Amar Abu-Isa/Amer Abu Aysha (32)

On 12 June 2014, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped at the bus/hitchhiking stop at the Israeli settlement of Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank, as they were hitchhiking to their homes. The three teens were Naftali Frenkel (16, from Nof Ayalon), Gilad Shaer (16, from Talmon), and Eyal Yifrah (19, from Elad).

Gilad Shaer called a police emergency hotline to report the kidnapping. The emergency call recording, initially under a gag order, was leaked to the public. After Shaer's whispered message "They kidnapped me", the taped call also recorded shouting in Arabic from the kidnappers and several volleys of automatic gunfire. 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.

The Israel Defense Forces initiated Operation Brother's Keeper in search of the three teenagers. As part of the operation, in the following 11 days Israel arrested around 350 Palestinians, including nearly all of Hamas' West Bank leaders. Five Palestinians were killed during the military operation.

On 15 June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the teens had been kidnapped by Hamas, which Hamas denied. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas maintained that as of 22 June there was no evidence that Hamas was behind the kidnapping.

On 25 July, BBC correspondent Jon Donnison tweeted that Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld stated that the kidnappings did not occur on the orders of, or with the knowledge of the Hamas leadership, and that the crime was the action of a "lone cell".Sheera Frenkel had reported similar views from Israel and Palestinian sources some ten days earlier. Rosenfeld later denied having used the words "lone cell".