Sat Jun 21, 2014 12:50AM GMT
A senior Israeli official has admitted that Tel Aviv’s current manhunt in the West Bank has more objectives than finding the allegedly missing Israeli teenagers.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid told Israeli media on Friday that the search for the three illegal settlers meant to “break” Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and its reconciliation deal with Fatah.
Tel Aviv has accused Hamas of kidnapping the Israeli settlers, who were allegedly abducted in the occupied West Bank earlier this month.
However, Hamas rejects the claim, saying Tel Aviv seeks to sabotage the recent reconciliation accord reached between the movement and Fatah, which led to the formation of the Palestinian national unity government.
Several Palestinians have been killed in fresh Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip as Israeli forces press ahead with operations to find the allegedly missing Israelis.
In April, Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement to end years of rivalry and form a unity government
Israel has arrested hundreds of Palestinians, including Hamas members and MPs, since June 12, when the Israeli settlers allegedly went missing in al-Khalil (Hebron).
NT/MHB/MAM
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
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