Reuters, Ramallah :
Israel’s army said it detained another 37 Palestinians overnight as it searched for three missing teenagers and extended a crackdown on the Hamas Islamist group it accuses of kidnapping them.
There were no reports of clashes between the soldiers and Palestinians in the raids in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where the military says it has detained 361 people since the Israeli students went missing on June 12.
The crisis has stepped up tensions in the West Bank which, along with east Jerusalem and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Palestinians want as part of a future state.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the latest operations took place in Jenin, a militant stronghold, and in the Hebron area, close to where the three disappeared while hitchhiking.
“As part of on-going operations, (Israeli) forces detained 37 suspects and searched 80 locations,” the spokeswoman said.
Palestinian officials said Israeli soldiers also entered Bethlehem and Nablus.
Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the disappearance of the students – Gil-Ad Shaer, US-Israeli national Naftali Fraenkel, both aged 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19.
