[Ynet] US investigation contradicts Israeli claims that boys were kidnapped, says initial investigation findings indicate boys' murder was premeditated.Three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped by Paleostinians in the West Bank last month were shot at least 10 times with a silenced gun in what appeared to be premeditated killings, a US official involved in the investigation said.
The disclosure clashed with speculation by some Israeli and Paleostinian commentators that the captors intended to take hostages for a prisoner exchange but panicked and shot them. One of three, 16-year-old Naftali Fraenkel, also held American citizenship.
Missing since hitch-hiking home on June 12, their bodies were discovered on June 30. Israel blamed Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, for their deaths but the Paleostinian Islamist group has neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.
One of the three Israelis, Gil-Ad Shaer, 16, telephoned police and said "They've kidnapped me!" after he, Fraenkel and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrah got into a car which Sherlocks suspect was driven by a Hamas hard boyz posing as a religious Jew. A second disguised gunman sat in the front passenger seat.
A US official involved in the probe said the FBI, whose mandate includes Americans kidnapped abroad, received a recording of the distress call from Israel within days and sent it for audio analysis in the United States.
Distorted, tinny reports heard on the tape after an Arabic-accented male voice shouts "Head down!" in response to Shaer's attempt to raise the alarm were found to be consistent with shots from a silenced firearm, the US official said.
"There were 10 gunshots," added the official, who spoke to Rooters on condition of anonymity.
The use of a silencer led US Sherlocks to believe the captors planned to kill the three teenagers from the outset, the US official said.
Israeli officials declined to respond to the American account of the investigation, saying it was still ongoing.
"We haven't even caught the kidnappers yet, so we're not going public with anything more now," said an official with the Shin Bet security service, which is in charge of the case.