"An IDF spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny the report."

Precisely why it is so difficult to give credence to the utterings and the integrity of Israeli sources.

The murder of the three Israeli kids is an atrocity and those responsible should suffer the severest penalty, IF, and only IF, the Israelis mete out the same to the murderer(s) of the Palestinian kid in East Jerusalem.

As yet, there is no evidence that Hamas had any part in the former, nor evidence that Israel (in the form of the IDF) had any part in the latter.

Yet Israeli apologists will insist that the former was a Hamas atrocity, while the latter was a misguided individual unconnected with the Israeli government, or army.