Kerry and Livni (archive)
Kerry and Livni (archive)Flash 90

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni met on Friday in London with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and asked him to help in the search for the three yeshiva students who went missing near Hevron.

Army Radio reported that Livni told Kerry that rapid action is necessary under the circumstances.

A senior State Department official told The Associated Press that Kerry called Abbas to talk about the missing teenagers and likely will call Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as well.

The three students, two of whom are from the Makor Chaim Yeshiva in the religious kibbutz Kfar Etzion, went missing Thursday night.

All communication was lost with them as they were on their way home from the yeshiva, located in Gush Etzion, roughly between Jerusalem and Hevron in Judea. Security sources suspect they may have been taken into a vehicle driven by terrorists that stopped for them as they waited at a popular hitchhiking spot.

Netanyahu’s office said Friday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership is responsible for the boys' disappearance, but a spokesman for the PA’s security services said the PA had nothing to do with it.

"Three settlers are missing, why is this the fault of the Palestinian Authority? We have nothing to do with this issue,” he said. “If a natural disaster hits Israel, would we be responsible? This is mad and unacceptable, we have no knowledge about this.”

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)