Over five months have passed sixteeen-year-old Moishe Kleinerman from Modi'in Illit disappeared without a trace, after last having been seen in the northern town of Meron, near the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. On two separate occasions, police detained suspects believed to be related to the disappearance but all have since been released. Last week, the court extended its gag order on all details of the investigation. Last week, the IDF was enlisted in the search for the boy, following repeated appeals made by Moishe's family to Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Major Ido Yisrael, head of the IDF's section for Missing Persons, was interviewed by Behadrey Haredim and described the "additional capabilities" the IDF can bring to a search for a missing person, above and beyond the ability of Israel Police to locate individuals. He noted that the IDF is mostly involved in tracking down missing soldiers, but that his section is "happy to assist" in the tracing of civilians if they are asked to do so. "We work according to a special theory for tracing missing persons," he said. "We have people whose skills are specifically in this area, and if and when there are clues to follow up on, we have ways and means of doing so, which I cannot detail." Asked whether there are, indeed, any leads that the IDF is following up, Yisrael declined to respond. "Ultimately, the police are in charge of the search and we are subordinate to them," he said. Related articles: Moishe Kleinerman's family refuses to give up Brother born to missing teen New developments in search for missing teen Search for missing 9-year-old continues in Tzfat "We have been given the background and all the details of the search so far," Yisrael added. "Although time has passed since Moishe went missing, from our point of view, we were given the task of finding him just last week and we are starting from there. In fact, there are missing-persons cases still outstanding that date back decades, to the early days of the State, and even today we pick up threads of clues that we do our best to follow up. "We'll do everything we can to find Moishe," he added. "Our approach is that there is always something that can be done, even if the time factor is problematic - and it is always problematic. But we'll do the best we can, for as long as we are asked to - which is up to the police to decide." Searching for Moshe Kleinerman Flash90 IDF spokesman IDF spokesman IDF spokesman
