AISH.COM
by Sara Yoheved Rigler
June 15, 2014

We did not find out about the kidnapping on the Internet. Early Friday afternoon, my husband was praying the afternoon prayer in an ancient synagogue in our neighborhood, the Old City of Jerusalem. The prayer leader appended Psalms 121 and 130 onto the regular liturgy, as is done when an extra dose of heavenly mercy is urgently needed. Afterwards, my husband asked who was sick, and he heard the heart-stopping news.

Three yeshiva students had been kidnapped on Thursday night by Arab terrorists. Naftali Frankel, 16, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, were studying in their yeshiva in Gush Etzion, an area of Jewish towns and Arab villages south of Jerusalem. The night study session over, they were last seen hitchhiking at a major intersection in the area. One of them used his cellphone to call “100,” the number of the Israel Police, and managed to say, “They abducted us.” Then the phone went dead.

The I.D.F. launched an intensive search throughout Gush Eztion and Hebron. They also sealed all the main crossings into Gaza in an attempt to stave off a repeat of the Gilad Shalit kidnapping. Gilad was kept by Hamas terrorists in a basement in Gaza for five years, and was then traded to Israel for a thousand terrorist prisoners.

“Our boys were kidnapped by a terrorist organization. There is no doubt about that,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said in an official statement. “We are in the midst of a widespread operation to locate and bring back the three young yeshiva students. I spoke with their parents, and I told them that we are doing everything possible and more to bring back their boys, who are also our children.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu informed U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro that one of the abducted boys is an American citizen…..

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