downtown, from other parts of jerusalem and mostly young men, but there are older people as well, but just boys from the neighborhood, boys from around town who have been angered by this killing and as i said, long, smoldering frustrations that go back decades. and could this be the beginning, do you think, of a much bigger conflict? reporter: it s difficult to say. in the past there have been sort of brief periods of unrest, and that have calmed down. it s difficult to say. the problem is that once you get into this cycle of people getting killed in clashes and then funerals and more clashes, that is when things have a danger of getting out of control, and keep in mind there is the situation in jerusalem which is unique. then there s the situation throughout the west bank from the 12th of june, israel was
but regardless of the contents, what is really causing ripples in israeli politics and criticism of the police is the fact that this call was made at about 10:30 on the evening the 12th of june. and it wasn t until 5:00 a.m. that israeli army in the west bank was alerted to a kidnapping. and to add to that, according to reports in some reliable israeli newspapers, the parents started calling the police. they made 54 calls between the time they started to suspect the children had gone missing until the army actually was alerted and started taking action. so already we know the police officers had been dismissed for mishandling this affair and i think probably more heads are going to roll, jim. incredible, just thinking of the criticism of the government response as well with all the anger swirling there.
it s really remarkable, ben. now there are reports that israeli officials believe that during that possibly during that phone call or soon after is when those israeli teens were killed. in other words, they were killed very soon after they were picked up. what are you hearing now about what israeli officials believe? well, they believe that first of all we know they were killed soon after they were kidnapped on the 12th of june. that s been known for a few days now. as far as the call itself goes, of course, there are persistence reports that in that call there s the sound of what could be gunfire. now, it s really hard to make out anything in that tape beyond some basic very basic stuff,
israel s next step, john. what is the goal of the next step against hamas? is it merely to avenge the deaths of these three teenagers? it is to split hamas from the palestinian in the west bank or is it to destabilize the hamas regime in gaza? well, prime minister netanyahu has made it clear from the beginning of this drama on the 12th of june that the operation in the west bank was aimed at two things. finding the teenagers, punishing their captors, and cracking down on hamas, which he has made clear he holds completely responsible. as far as gaza is concerned, the question is what will israel do next. let s keep in mind, john, that in late 2008-early 2009, israel conducted a three-week offensive against hamas in gaza and in november 2012, a shorter offensive against hamas in gaza.
earlier there were forensic officials, police, army here looking basically combing the hillside for additional evidence to find out who may have been behind their kidnapping and murder, all indications are that in fact, they were shot to death very soon after the kidnapping took place late at night on the 12th of june. meanwhile, we understand that processions are beginning to leave the homes of the three teenagers with the bodies. they re going to be going to modaine, a town half way between jerusalem and tel aviv for a funeral expected to be attended byes. against simon perez and benjamin netanyahu. there will be a cabinet session where israeli officials will ponder their next move. we understand there s a fair amount of disagreement as to what the next moves should be. one minister is calling for a full scale military operation in