June 18, 2014: Israeli soldiers search for three missing Israeli teens believed to have been abducted in the West Bank, in the village of Taffouh near the West Bank city of Hebron. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)
Israel ripped the United Nations on Thursday after the international body claimed it had “no information to confirm” that three Israeli teens were kidnapped last week in the West Bank.
Algemeiner.com reports that the UN initially condemned the kidnappings, which Israel believes are the work of Hamas operatives. The UN said the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed solidarity with the teens' families and called for them to be released.
However, Ban’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq walked back the statement soon after, claiming the UN could not confirm the kidnappings.
Israel’s mission to the UN condemned the statement, calling the UN hypocritical in a video posted on YouTube Thursday.
“The UN is out of touch, out of line and out of time,” it said.
The missing teens 16-year-old Naftali Fraenkel, who has dual Israeli-American citizenship, Eyal Yifrah, 19, and Gilad Shaar, also 16, disappeared late Thursday at a hitchhiking junction in the West Bank on their way home from their religious school. The case has riveted the nation's attention, receiving around-the-clock coverage in local media.
Israel believes Hamas operatives abducted the teens in the West Bank. Israel has arrested more than 280 Palestinians since the teens disappeared, most of them Hamas activists, the biggest West Bank crackdown on the militant group in almost a decade. Israel has vowed to exact a heavy price from Hamas, saying the aim of the military operation goes beyond searching for the boys.
In a statement Tuesday, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor condemned Hamas and expressed outrage at the international community for not understanding the danger of Hamas' new role in the Palestinian unity government.
"I ask the international community -- where are you? Where are you?" he said. "The kidnapping took place just 10 days after Fatah and Hamas formed a unity government. All those in the international community who rushed to bless this marriage, should look into the eyes of the heartbroken parents and have the courage to take responsibility by condemning the kidnapping."
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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