Pushing back against the latest Israeli government media offensive, Sheera Frenkel’s sources say that the alleged culprit was tortured into the confession:
“Since the kidnapping of the Israeli teens, the number of cases where torture is being used is unbelievable,” Fadi Qawasami, [a lawyer who is working on the case and is a distant relative of the Qawasmeh family], said in an interview with BuzzFeed in East Jerusalem. “Anyone who has any connection or relationship to the kidnappers has been arrested and tortured.”
Those closest to the investigation continue to doubt the involvement of the Hamas leadership.
Last week, Israeli intelligence officers told BuzzFeed they had not found a direct link to Hamas in their investigation into the kidnapping. “If there was an order, from any of the senior Hamas leadership in Gaza or abroad, this would be an easier case to investigate. We would have that intelligence data. But there is no data, so we have come to conclude that these men were acting on their own,” said one intelligence officer.
When reached for comment Wednesday, after the Israelis had revealed the arrest of Qawasmeh, the same officer told BuzzFeed that from an intelligence standpoint, a connection still did not exist to the senior Hamas leadership.
Obviously I cannot verify any of this but will continue to post any reporting that adds to our understanding. But the alleged use of torture here would be a classic case: not to get intelligence but to create reality to justify more aggression, or exculpate the torturers.
The Dish 