Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — Israel’s intelligence community has been mulling the
prospect that three Jewish teenagers abducted by Hamas were dead.

A leading Israeli defense analyst asserted that the intelligence
community has failed to determined signs of life from three teenagers
abducted on June 12 from the southern West Bank.

The analyst said that Hamas or its allies would have already supplied such signs in an effort to begin negotiations for a massive Palestinian prisoner release.

“There is a possibility that it will happen even after more than a week, but every passing day further reduces the already remote chances that the boys will come home alive,” the analyst, Amir Rapaport, said.

Rapaport, editor of Israel Defense magazine and deemed close to the military and intelligence community, said Military Intelligence and the Israel Security Agency failed to collect credible information on the three youngsters. He said the intelligence agencies were employing virtually every asset, including human, aerial and signals intelligence.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed Hamas for
the abduction and urged cooperation from the Palestinian Authority. But
officials have not reported either signs of life or determined that the
teenagers were still alive.

“The bottom line is that at the end of this week, there is still no
clear understanding what happened to the boys,” Rapaport said.

On June 19, Netanyahu was briefed by the military’s Central Command,
responsible for the West Bank. Later, the prime minister reiterated that
Hamas abducted the youngsters.

“We’re doing everything in our power to bring back our three kidnapped
teenagers,” Netanyahu said. “They were kidnapped by Hamas. We had no doubt
of that.”

For his part, Rapaport said the intelligence community has been
struggling with Palestinian disinformation. He said ISA rejected a claim of
responsibility from a purported group linked to Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and
Levant.

At the same time, the intelligence community was said to be unable to
link the abduction to Hamas. Rapaport said statements by Netanyahu and
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon were meant to pressure PA Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas to end the reconciliation deal with Hamas.

A former senior intelligence official has concluded that the three
teenagers were killed. Brig. Gen. Nitzan Nouriel, former head of the
Counter-Terrorism Bureau, said the abductors could attempt to exchange
the bodies of the Israelis for Palestinian prisoners.

“My opinion is that this event consisted of a killing in an attempt to
negotiate for the bodies,” Nouriel said.

  Amir Rapaport, Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense analyst: No signs that abducted Israeli teens are still alive, Israel Security Agency