Details of the abduction of Gil-ad Shaer, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frenkel continued to surface Sunday, but their location remains a mystery, and their fate continues to be a matter of great concern.
Dozens of Palestinians have been arrested in the Hebron area in recent days in a military operation that included the deliberate and systematic undermining of Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank.
The operation "framed" Hamas as the guilty party in the abduction, although it remains unclear whether this was the work of a local terror cell or one executing orders given by Hamas higher-ups in the Gaza Strip, Hamas operatives jailed in Israel, or terrorists deported in the prisoner exchange deal that secured the return of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who are now pulling the strings on the ground from the safety of their host countries.
Finding out these details is crucial not only to retrace events, but as a catalyst for Israel's response. Right now, all efforts are focused on the incident's operational aspects -- to retrieve the teens and locate the abductors and anyone associated with them. But later a decision will have to be made on whether to conclude the operation then, or exact a price from Hamas.
One option is to target Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip, although that could lead to an overall escalation in southern Israel and perhaps even rocket fire at central Israel, something the government undoubtedly seeks to avoid, unless Hamas itself tries to shift focus from the West Bank by agitating the situation in Gaza and compelling Israel to mount a forceful response.
The other, more likely scenario, involves dealing a debilitating blow to Hamas' political and financial infrastructure in the West Bank, as well as to its propaganda machine -- a move likely to garner the clandestine support of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who would surely support undermining his rivals-turned-partners.
Israel is also expected to increase its public diplomacy efforts against Hamas, which has been able to gain some legitimacy in the West following the induction of the new Palestinian unity government, but was denounced as a terror organization once again on Sunday, by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
It is doubtful that such efforts will truly undermine the new Palestinian unity, whose bizarre structure has so far been able to partially serve Israel's interests, especially when it comes to the coordination and collaboration between the Israel Defense Forces and the Palestinian security forces.
The focus right now remains the military operation and the Shin Bet security agency's intelligence-gathering efforts, especially in the Hebron area, which seek to bring this affair to its end as soon as possible. Much of this depends on the preliminary work done by the abductors, who so far have been given high marks for their professionalism, even by Israel.
If and when this affair comes to its end, the pent-up anger one can feel among top defense officials will be released, and with it the questions about the way the police handled the event in its early stages.
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