That is what I thought as keeping them as hostages is a big win for whatever terrorist cell/group grabbed them. I read somewhere they were killed almost immediately though (not sure if that information is correct) which may indicate killers who didn't have a well planned network and just murdered them and ran. There are terror groups operating, but there are also many radicalized young men who aren't plugged in yet and might just seize an opportunity when one presents itself. Shin Bet has a massive intelligence network over most all the Palestinian territories, so they'll probably get to the bottom of it quickly enough.
Yes, esp. if it was an ad-hoc group that grabbed them as a target of opportunity.
There is no way that this was just a couple of Arabs with a hard on. Three teenagers, ages 16, 16 and 20, look in good shape in the pictures. To capture them, you’d need to have a well-organized operation. I suspect leftist Israeli involvement, to lure them into a car. Have to speak Hebrew with no trace of Arab accent, have to have the body language and the idioms down pat. Then they set up the grab, further down the road. This was premeditated and well planned, imho, including the murders.
This story took an odd turn when I saw an article posted about an Israeli motorist who had picked them up while they were hitchhiking in Hebron and given them a ride somewhere in the West Bank. He said he warned them that it wasn’t safe for them to be traveling at night like that. This seemed like a very strange series of events. Maybe it’s different in the Middle East, but I wouldn’t even hitchhike in my own neighborhood here in the U.S. — let alone in a bad area like Detroit or East St. Louis.