Bat-Galim Shaar accuses authorities of ‘major screw-up’

A day after eulogizing her slain son, Bat-Galim Shaar, the mother of Gil-ad Shaar, accuses Israeli security of a “major screw-up” in handling the kidnapping of Gil-ad and the two other students.

Shaar says she and her husband thought they were “in good hands” when they heard the IDF had taken over the search efforts at 6 a.m. on the morning after the kidnapping, but were shocked to realize that they were searching for the boys in Beit Shemesh when the signal of one of their phones had already been traced to the southern West Bank at 4 a.m.

“I told the defense minister and the head of the Shin Bet — we know there was a major screw-up at the beginning, but I don’t want to deal with screw-ups now. I only want to know that you are doing everything you can to bring my son back. After they find Gil-ad, then I’ll let you have it,” she recalls in an interview with Channel 10.

She also criticizes the authorities for their response to the emergency call made by one of the teens, a recording of which was released yesterday. She says that when the recording was first played to the parents of the kidnapped youths, the authorities explained that the shots heard ringing out at the end of the recording were blank shots, leading the parents to believe that their sons were alive. They also told them no blood or DNA remnants had been found in the burned car used to kidnap the three.

“We had a real hope that they were alive,” she says. “They said that if they want to kill someone, they shoot them straight away, without warning them. When Gil-ad was heard shouting ‘ouch,’ they said it sounded like he was being pinched, not like someone who is about to be murdered — so they said the shots were probably aimed out the window, which was why shells were found beside the car.”