Parents of Kidnapped U.S-Israeli Teen: ‘Israel Will Bring You Back’
Anguished Prayer: Students at the Mekor Chaim yeshiva, the West Bank religious school of two of the three kidnapped Israeli teens, feeling anguish for their missing classmates, June 15, 2014. Image by JTA
The parents of Naftali Frenkel, one of three teens kidnapped last week, assured their son that “Israel will bring you back.”
“Naftali, Mom and Dad and your siblings love you to no end. Know that Israel is turning the world upside down to bring you home,” Rachel Frenkel said in a message to her son during a meeting with reporters on Sunday afternoon.
It was the first time that the parents of the 16-year-old boy, a dual Israeli-American citizen, have addressed the media since the kidnapping Thursday night.
The Frenkels are residents of Nof Ayalon, located in the center of Israel.
Naftali Frenkel; Gilad Shaar, 16, from Talmon; and Eyal Yifrach, 19, from Elad, have been missing since Thursday night. They were last seen trying to get rides home from a yeshiva high school in Gush Etzion, a bloc of settlements located south of Jerusalem.
“We are optimistic, with God’s help, He will see the combined effort of the prayers and solidarity, and we will embrace Naftali, Eyal and Gilad here,” Frenkel said.
Frenkel, who is a U.S. citizen, said the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has been “very supportive.”
“We are grateful to every soldier in the field, Knesset member, parents of soldiers and the media for bringing our story to the world,” she said, adding that the family has been in constant touch with the Israeli army, police, the Shin Bet security service and government representatives.
Frenkel also praised her family, friends and neighbors for looking out for her, her husband and her other children since the start of the episode.
A Nof Ayalon resident told JTA that community residents have been instructed not to talk to reporters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that members of Hamas kidnapped the teens.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
