TEMPO.CO, Jerusalem - Israeli authorities claimed to have arrested a Palestinian, a suspect of the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June. Reuters reported that Hussam Kawasme was arrested on July 11 in connection with the killing of Israelis Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrah, all three went missing on June 12 and were discovered dead a couple of weeks later.
Kawasme's arrest was made public for the first time yesterday in a document from an Israeli court case. The document said that Kawasme had admitted to "helping to organize the kidnapping - securing funding from the Hamas Islamist group in Gaza and purchasing weapons which he passed on to the two other suspects who carried out the attack." Kawasme also helped bury the bodies of the teenagers in a plot of land he had bought a few months earlier.
Kawasme' partners in crime, identified as Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha, remain at large during the revelation. Regardless, the discovery of three dead Israeli teenagers has sparked the conflict in Gaza, in which thousands, mostly civilians, have been killed since June.
ANINGTIAS JATMIKA | REUTERS
