On June 30, 2014, the bodies of Israeli teenagers Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Yifrah were discovered buried in a field near Hebron, located approximately 15 minutes from the site of their abduction.
The murder of the three youths served as the catalyst for the IDF’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, initiating the 2014 Gaza War, widely known as Operation Protective Edge.
The incident occurred on June 12, when the teenagers were abducted from a hitchhiking point while returning from Gush Etzion. During the kidnapping, Shaer managed to contact the police, whispering, “We’ve been kidnapped,” after realizing their driver was not Israeli.
In response to the disappearance, the IDF launched Operation Brother’s Keeper, a large-scale effort to apprehend Hamas leadership within the West Bank.
The operation resulted in the arrest of approximately 400 Palestinian suspects. Additionally, the IDF worked to dismantle Hamas-affiliated infrastructure, including mosques, schools, and hospitals used to propagate the group’s ideology.
Among those detained were 56 individuals who had been released during the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange three years prior.
While kidnappers Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aisha were killed during an IDF shootout near Hebron in September 2014, the mastermind, Hussam Hassan Kawasme, received three life sentences for his role in the crime.
Kawasme confessed to orchestrating and funding the attack, admitting to receiving NIS 200,000 from Hamas in Gaza to purchase weapons and facilitate the crime, as well as concealing the victims’ bodies. During sentencing, the IDF prosecutor noted that Kawasme targeted the boys specifically because they were Jewish.
