the day of the time they were kidnapped and the time their bodies were found. now, there was this massive certain going on in the west bank. thousands of israeli soldiers combing the hills, the caves around hebron, it was the largest israeli military operation in the west bank since 2002, and what we understand is that a sandal of one of the teenagers was found, and then some sunglasses that the police took back to the optician, confirmed one of the boys bought the sunglasses, they were found in the area, that led to the discovery of the bodies. all indications are they were shot shortly after they were kidnapped on the 12th of june. carol? is hamas to blame or is it this small group that s now claiming responsibility? reporter: welle this group the so-called supporters of the islamic state, is a group nobody has ever heard of before, so not
fire out of gaza, israeli air strikes over the last few days, what we ve seen overnight is some intense air strikes. i just got off the phone with someone in gaza, saying that as far as he knows, they ve hit a variety of training facilities and other military facilities belonging to hamas and other factions in response. we had a variety of rockets fired out of gaza this evening as well as mortar barrages, so it definitely looks like we have an escalation on the way. this is really just the beginning, john. what do we know about the investigation itself. how did israel end up finding the bodies of these teenagers that have been missing for more than two weeks? they went missing at about 12:30 on the 12th of june, focused mainly in the southern part of the west bank and within the city itself.
now, what s interesting is, that apparently what happened was, the first body was discovered this afternoon at about 5:00 p.m. local time by volunteers, people who are affiliated with it. not far from here. apparently one person went out to a field and found under a bunch of rocks a body he contacted the israeli army, and police they came over closed off the area, found the other two bodies, this was in an area that was only about a 15 minute drive from where the original kidnapping took place on the 12th of june, and in a field that had already been searched by the military and police. quickly, israel insists that it thinks that hamas is responsible for these deaths, is hamas claiming responsibility, though? no. hamas praised the kidnapping, but did not claim responsibility. there were in the initial days
12:30 on the 12th of june, focused mainly in the southern part of the west bank and within the city itself. now, what s interesting is, that apparently what happened was, the first body was discovered this afternoon at about 5:00 p.m. local time by volunteers, people who are affiliated with it. not far from here. apparently one person went out to a field and found under a bunch of rocks a body he contacted the israeli army, and police they came over closed off the area, found the other two bodies, this was in an area that was only about a 15 minute drive from where the original kidnapping took place on the 12th of june, and in a field that had already been searched by the military and police. quickly, israel insists that it thinks that hamas is responsible for these deaths, is
three missing israeli teenagers have been found. more than two weeks after they vanished. they were on their way home from school in the west bank. israel has been basically in the first 24 hours of their disappearance accusing the militant group hamas of kidnapping these teens. we have our senior international correspondent on the phone from the west bank, ben wedeman and michael oren, former israeli ambassador to the united states. but ben wiedeman, first to you. reaction to this itf news conference. where were these three teenage bodies found and how? reporter: well, we understand they were found northwest in a city in the west bank, not far from where the three teenagers disappeared on the 12th of june. we understand from the israeli military they received a tip-off to go search in a field where