Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday and the military said they were members of Hamas responsible for the killing of three Israeli youths in June, an attack that led to the Gaza war.
Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha, both in their 30s, were shot dead during a gun battle after Israeli troops surrounded a house in the city before dawn, the army and residents said. Israel had been hunting the men for three months.
Kawasme and Abu Aysha were suspected of carrying out the kidnapping and killing of the three teenage seminary students, who were abducted while hitchhiking at night near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank on June 12.
The military said army and police forces were trying to arrest the two suspects when a firefight erupted.
"We opened fire, they returned fire and they were killed in the exchange," Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said.
The governor of Hebron, Kamel Hmeid, confirmed on Palestinian radio that the two were dead.
"It's clear now the two martyrs, al-Kawasme and Abu Aysha, were assassinated this morning during a military operation in the Hebron University area. We condemn this crime, this assassination, as deliberate and premeditated murder," he said. Kawasme and Abu Aysha were affiliated with Hamas, which initially denied any link to the attack. But last month the group acknowledged responsibility.
"Hamas praises the role martyrs Abu Aysha and Kawasme played in chasing down Israeli settlers," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the operation. "We will continue to strike terrorism everywhere," he said. "This morning the long arm of Israeli justice caught them."
Israeli forces have conducted sweeps across the West Bank in the past three months, rounding up hundreds of suspected Hamas members in house-to-house raids in the hunt for the suspects.
The abduction and killing of Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, caused alarm throughout Israel and set off a cycle of violence, including the killing of Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khudair, 16, by three Israelis who have been charged.
Khudair's killing led to clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli police in East Jerusalem, while the round-up of Hamas suspects provoked rocket fire at Israel, leading to the war.
Gaza medical officials say 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in the 50-day conflict, while 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were also killed.
Egyptian-mediated talks between Israel and the Palestinians on cementing a ceasefire in Gaza resumed on a sour note after Israel's killing of the two Hamas militants.
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