REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEY YORK -- The UN human rights office has expressed concern over situation in the context of the ongoing operations by Israeli security forces after three Israeli teenagers went missing in the West Bank, a UN spokesperson said on Friday.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights concerned that the three teenagers have still not been located, after being missing for 15 days, and hopes for their immediate safe return, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at a daily news briefing.

He said that the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Flavia Pansieri, met this week in Geneva with the mothers of the three missing Israelis and expressed her sincere sympathy with them. As a mother herself, she expressed her understanding of their deep anxiety about the fate of their sons.

Nearly two weeks after the Jewish teens, who studied at West Bank seminaries, went missing at a hitchhiking junction in Gush Etzion, a settlement bloc south of Jerusalem, their fate and whereabouts remain unknown, and demands for their release have not been made.

Thousands of Israeli security forces have been deployed across the West Bank to track down the missing Israeli teens. More than two Palestinians have died in ensuing clashes and more than 300 Palestinians arrested during the operation.

Dujarric said that the human rights office's sympathy also goes out to the mothers and loved ones of the Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli forces, in addition to the many others who have been injured.

"The Office reiterates its call for strict adherence to international law by all relevant actors and joins others in their call for restraint," he said.

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