(AFP PHOTO/HAZEM BADER)
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has called on Israel to show restraint in its response to the alleged kidnapping of three teenagers in the West Bank last Thursday.
The ministry’s comments come as Israeli forces expanded operations in the occupied Palestinian territory to search for the two 16 year-olds and a 19 year-old.
The teenagers are thought to have been taken whilst hitchhiking between Bethlehem and Hebron on Thursday night, reported AFP.
A ministry spokesman called for the “utmost restraint” on the part of the Israelis, and to refrain from escalating the situation. The ministry added that preventing any escalation would “contain the growing tension between the two sides” and prevent it from becoming “difficult to control later”.
The Israeli Defence Forces said Sunday its operation to find the kidnapped teenagers, one of whom is an American citizen, had “arrested 150 Palestinian suspects in connection with the abduction”.
The statement added that 40 suspects had been arrested on Sunday, “including several Hamas operatives”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the group for the kidnapping on Sunday.
