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Itongadol.- Thousands of Israelis gathered at the Western Wall plaza on Sunday to join in supplication for the safe release of three yeshiva students who were kidnapped in the West Bank. Police estimated that over 30,000 people, among them family members of the abducted teens, attended the prayer session, the Hebrew news site Walla reported.
Eyal Yifrach, 19, from Elad near Petah Tikva, Gil-ad Shaar, 16, from the settlement of Talmon, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, a dual Israeli-American citizen from Nof Ayalon near Modi’in, were abducted while hitchhiking south of Jerusalem Thursday night, sparking a wide-ranging manhunt in the West Bank.
Yifrach’s brother, Asaf, led the crowd at the Western Wall with brokenhearted prayer, sobbing as he recited verse after verse from the Book of Psalms.
The session was attended by both Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, as well as IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz. Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, and Shas MK Eli Yishai also took part.
“We are proving to our enemies that the people of Israel live on, and we will never be broken,” Lau said.
“The entire nation came to the Western Wall tonight, as one person with one heart, united in prayer for the safety of the hostages; may they soon return to their families and their nation,” he added.
After the prayer session fights broke out near the Western Wall between Jews and Arabs.