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Tens of thousands rally in Tel Aviv for return of kidnapped youngsters
An estimated 85,000 Israelis packed into Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square to call for the return of the three kidnapped teenagers, who have now been missing for more than two weeks.
Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaer, 16 and Naftali Frenkel, 16 were kidnapped while hitchhiking in the West Bank. Since then, Israel has conducted a large-scale military operation to locate the missing teenagers especially targeting Hamas activists with arrests made across the West Bank. Last week, Israel named two Hamas members from the Hebron area as the prime suspects wanted in connection with the abduction. Consequently, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday called on Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to scrap his unity deal with Hamas.
Yesterday evening, under the slogans “Bring Back Our Boys” and “Together for their return,” crowds of Israelis from across the country filled Rabin Square in central Tel Aviv. The families of the three abducted boys attended the rally, with Rachel Frenkel, mother of Naftali telling the crowd “We didn’t come to protest, it’s a rally of love and togetherness.” Frenkel thanked the soldiers searching for the youngsters plus the politicians who have condemned the kidnapping, specifically naming PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
A list of well-known Israeli singers performed before President-elect Reuven Rivlin spoke. Rivlin said “We’re here because we didn’t lose hope” adding “We came to pray in all languages, with all religions… an ancient prayer, a prayer from a mother to a son.”
Earlier yesterday, the parents of the three kidnapped teenagers visited the site from where they were abducted for the first time. Meanwhile, the operation to locate them continued. On Saturday, the IDF made 18 arrests in connection with the kidnapping.
Israel’s President Shimon Peres met yesterday with United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and told him, “The United Nations… represents the world – it is your responsibility to cry out on behalf of the mothers of the kidnapped boys and call for their immediate release.”