Analysis

Palestinians search for 3 youths; not clear if they’re planning attack

Cellphones and 2 ID cards belonging to the three found near Ramallah last week; families say they have not heard from them

By Avi Issacharoff
  • Avi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel's Middle East analyst, fills the same role for Walla, the leading portal in Israel. He is also a guest commentator on many different radio shows and current affairs programs on television. Until 2012, he was a reporter and commentator on Arab affairs for the Haaretz newspaper. He also lectures on modern Palestinian history at Tel Aviv University, and is currently writing a script for an action-drama series for the Israeli satellite Television "YES." Born in Jerusalem, he graduated cum laude from Ben Gurion University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies and then earned his M.A. from Tel Aviv University on the same subject, also cum laude. A fluent Arabic speaker, Avi was the Middle East Affairs correspondent for Israeli Public Radio covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the Arab countries between the years 2003-2006. Avi directed and edited short documentary films on Israeli television programs dealing with the Middle East. In 2002 he won the "best reporter" award for the "Israel Radio” for his coverage of the second intifada. In 2004, together with Amos Harel, he wrote "The Seventh War - How we won and why we lost the war with the Palestinians." A year later the book won an award from the Institute for Strategic Studies for containing the best research on security affairs in Israel. In 2008, Issacharoff and Harel published their second book, entitled "34 Days - The Story of the Second Lebanon War," which won the same prize.
 8 April 2016, 1:38 pm
The West Bank city of Ramallah (CC BY-Ralf Lotys (Sicherlich)/Wikimedia Commons)

Palestinian security officials said Friday they were conducting intensive searches for three Palestinian youths who have been reported missing since March 30.

The officials said they fear for their lives and are unsure what the three Palestinians had set out to do. They added that it’s unclear whether something has happened to the three, or whether they were planning some sort of attack.

All possibilities are being investigated, the Palestinian officials said.

Concerns for the three grew after the cellphones and ID cards of two of the youths were found near the West Bank city of Ramallah last Friday, Bethlehem Radio said Thursday.

Palestinian police notified the families of Basel Mahmoud Ala’raj of al-Walaja, near Jerusalem; Mohammed Abdullah Harb, of Jenin; and Haytham Sayaj, of Hebron, of the find on Sunday.

The families said that they have had no word about the whereabouts of the three.

Palestinian security forces this week urged the public to refrain from spreading rumors concerning the youths’ fate.

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