As additional information is released, it is clear that it was not just the Israel Police dispatcher that botched calls for assistance on the night of the eve of 15 Sivan 5774.
According to a Channel 10 News report, Mr. Ofir Shaar, the father of Gilad, phoned the Binyamin Regional Council “Moked” emergency dispatcher at 03:18, five hours after the boys were abducted. The dispatch center is manned by civilians in most cases, with the ability to make direct contact to the IDF in that region.
Being that the Shaar family lives in the Binyamin Council district, Mr. Shaar phoned that emergency dispatcher. That moked phoned the moked dispatcher in the Efrat district where the kidnapping occurred to pass along the father’s concerns. Mr. Shaar phoned again a short time later to determine if the IDF was being involved or just the police. He told the dispatcher his son may have been kidnapped because he never made it home.
The moked notified police but only at 04:58 did that moked decide to involve the IDF, 40 minutes later. The dispatcher said “We informed the personnel at all checkpoints and there is nothing more to be done. If we are dealing with one or two yeshiva students they likely decided to head to a friend. I am confident it will clear itself up by morning”. At 05:06 the Efrat moked decided to finally connect Mr. Shaar with the military.
Mr. Shaar asked the moked “Does the army believe something has occurred since the youths are have not been answering their cell phones since 22:00?”The moked responded “It will be fine come morning, you will see”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
In hindsight, nobody botched anything, because they had joined the ranks of the Kedoshim before anyone could have done anything.
I think this is one of the lessons from this tragedy; that we, with our incredible police force and IDF, cannot protect us completely, even from two sloppy Arab terrorists.
Hashem Nosan, Hashem Lokach, Y’hi Sheim Hashem M’vorach!