IDF soldiers scour Hevron for missing boys
IDF soldiers scour Hevron for missing boysScreenshot/IDF Spokesperson's Unit

The IDF and security forces continue their search for the three yeshiva students believed held by terrorists after they were kidnapped Thursday night in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem.

The search focuses on the city of Hevron in Judea, south of Gush Etzion, where undisclosed intelligence information indicates the boys are being held. 

Officials and security heads have vowed to work day and night to free the boys and hunt down their captors, and on Saturday night Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon promised he would not rest until they were found - and their captors were punished

To illustrate that fact the IDF has released a video showing soldiers engaging in a night search, combing through undergrowth and fanning out throughout the city under the cover of darkness.

On Saturday night, one official told Arutz Sheva the search is likely to be a long one, and results should not be expected "overnight".

Nevertheless, a former head of the military's unit dedicated to POWs and MIAs offered some hope, saying that the fact that a significant and growing time frame has lapsed since the boys' abduction does not necessarily mean they are less likely to be alive.

"This is, right now, a classic stage in kidnapping affairs, where it takesthree days to gather eyewitness accounts and another say to begin making demands [on the kidnappers] - this is how it was during [the 1994 kidnapping of Nachshon] Wachsman and this is how it is with other kidnapping incidents," Lior Lotan stated, according to IDF Radio

"I do not think [the time lapse] indicates something about the event [or whether or not the boys are alive -ed.], but is a natural ingredient in it."

A similar video was released last night, showing house-to-house searches in Hevron.