The ongoing conflict began last month when three Zionist settlers were kidnapped from a settlement in the occupied West Bank. Their bodies were later discovered in a field outside the city of al-Khalil. Before police were able to determine who was responsible, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu placed blame of their deaths squarely on Hamas, Gaza’s elected political leadership—an accusation that may prove to be false.
On Friday, Chief Inspector Micky Rosenfeld, foreign press spokesman for the Israeli Police, reportedly told BBC journalist Jon Donnisonhe that the men responsible for murders were not acting on orders of Hamas leadership. Instead, he said, they are part of a “lone cell.” Further, Inspector Rosenfeld told Donnison that if Hamas’ leadership had ordered the kidnapping, “they'd have known about it in advance.”
Inspector Rosenfeld’s statements, along with a number of reports concerning the identities of known police suspects, seem to indicate that Hamas leadership was not involved in the incident.
Husam Dofsh, a former Hamas member, was arrested on suspicion of his involvement on July 5. After learning that he was a suspect, Dofsh called the Times of Israel and insisted that he had taken no part in the kidnapping. “I saw online, and people also told me, that I was tied to the mess, but I did not kidnap and didn’t do anything. I just want to continue my life,” Dofsh told reporters.
The two more-likely suspects are Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme, who have been missing from their homes since the night of the kidnapping. Police found cellphones and prepared food caches in their homes. Both had recently opened bank accounts in their wive's names. Palestinian security forces reported that Abu Aysha and Kawasme were missing to the Israelis the day after the kidnapping occurred, according to Al Monitor.
If the reported findings of the Israeli Police hold up and Hamas is officially cleared of any misconduct in the case of the three kidnapped Israeli teens, Netanyahu and the Israeli government may have to explain why a massive military operation, with an 80 percent rate of civilian casualties, was instigated under a false premise.
Meanwhile, if violence in the West Bank continues to spread, the Israeli military may find itself divided on two fronts.
NTJ/MB