A recording of a mobile phone call apparently made to a police emergency number by one of three Israeli teenagers after they were kidnapped in the West Bank has been broadcast.
It is not clear if the call was made furtively or with the knowledge of the kidnappers.
Eyal Yifrach (19) Gil-ad Sha'er and Naftali Frankel, both aged 16, disappeared on June 12th while hitchhiking home from the Jewish seminaries where they were studying near Hebron.
Their bodies were found on Monday under a pile of rocks in a field north of the city, and they were buried in a joint funeral yesterday.
In the phone call broadcast on Israeli television a boy, identified by Israeli authorities as Gil-ad Sha’er, says in a hushed voice: “They’ve kidnapped me”, before unintelligible noise prompts the operator to ask: “Hello?”
Another voice, speaking in Hebrew with an Arabic accent, can then be heard saying: “Head down, head down”.
The conversation continues as follows:
Operator: “Hello?”
Apparent kidnapper: “Head down, down, hands down.”
Operator: “Hello?”
Two shouts are heard and then what sounds like physical blows.
Operator: “Hello?”
There is more shouting, louder this time.
Operator: “Hello?”
“Aye, brother,” someone is heard saying, as a series of what seems to be silenced gun shots are heard.
Operator: “Hello?”
The sound of an Israeli radio station is heard, possibly playing on a car radio.
Operator: “Hello? Answer me, whose telephone … where are you now? Hello?”
Agencies