Israeli Security Forces Fear Chareidi Teen May Have Been Abducted

 The Israel Dog Unit (IDU) issued an “urgent appeal to the public” in its search for Avraham Moshe Kleinerman, 16, of Modiin Illit, who was last seen at Meron over a month ago.

Last week, Israelis from several cities searched for Avraham in his home city of Modiin Illit as well as in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, and the Shomron, where he frequently visited. A large group of volunteers from the Israel Dog Unit (IDU), a nonprofit specializing in locating missing persons, also scoured the Meron area for hours, searching the site and surrounding forests for any sign of Avraham with dogs and drones.

Last Tuesday, volunteers made efforts to raise awareness of Avraham’s disappearance at the kevarim of Yehoshua Bin Nun and Calev ben Yefunah in the Palestinian village of Kifl Haris in the Shomron, Arutz Sheva reported. Many people whom Avraham associated with were there for the yahrzeit and volunteers distributed pamphlets about Avraham to the participants.

Avraham was once injured by Palestinian Arabs throwing stones at him in the Shomron and even has a large scar on his forehead due to a stone thrown at him. According to his father, he was hospitalized after the incident and has never been the same since, wandering around confused since he was released from the hospital.

Perhaps due to the trauma of the incident, he attempted in the past to return to the scene of the attack despite the fact that it occurred in Area A, which is legally forbidden for Israeli citizens to enter and extremely dangerous. Additionally, the IDU received a threatening message in Arabic from a Jordanian telephone number that Avraham was captured and would be killed in 24 hours. Security officials fear that he indeed may have been abducted.

“This is very serious,” said IDU director Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov. “Over a month has passed and it’s as if the ground swallowed him up. We are not ruling out a terrorist motive. I can’t say more at this time, other than request of the public to contact us if they can recall seeing Avraham any time over this past month, at our special missing person hotline.”