Israel struck back at the Hamas rump in Gaza following the murders of three yeshiva students living in the West Bank. At the time, a number of Kossacks publicly questioned the pretext, accusing the Netanyahu government of put up job. When Israel produced a known Hamas militant and admitted bagman behind the plot, some went so far as to accuse law enforcement of obtaining his confession through torture.
Well, time to scratch another conspiracy theory off the list:
A top Hamas official said members of his militant group kidnapped three Israeli teenagers whose deaths in June provoked a spiral of violence that led to the war in Gaza, the first acknowledgement of the movement's involvement.
Well, perhaps Netanyahu exaggerated ties between the murders and the broader terrorist organization?
"There was much speculation about this operation, some said it was a conspiracy," Saleh al-Arouri told delegates at the International Union of Islamic Scholars in Istanbul on Wednesday, according to a recording of the meeting posted online by organizers.
"The popular will was exercised throughout our occupied land, and culminated in the heroic operation by the Qassam Brigades in imprisoning the three settlers in Hebron," he said, referring to Hamas's armed wing.
This is Israel's enemy. Where Israeli law enforcement quickly
apprehended and obtained confessions from the murderers of Muhammed Abu Khdeir, Hamas lionizes "heroic operations" in which grown men hunt down and butcher yeshiva students.