Israel’s army kills Palestinians suspected in youths’ murder

JERUSALEM — Two Palestinians alleged to have kidnapped and murdered three Israeli youths in June were killed in a shootout with Israel’s forces in the West Bank city of Hebron, army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said today.

Israel says Amr Abu Aisha and Marwan Qawasmeh, militants linked to the Hamas Islamic movement that rules the Gaza Strip, kidnapped the Israeli teenagers who were hitchhiking in the West Bank on June 12, and then killed them. The incident set off a chain of events leading to Israel’s 50-day offensive against Hamas in Gaza that began in July.

“I said from the outset that Hamas was responsible for the kidnapping and murder, and as evidence accumulated, Hamas admitted that it stood behind this attack,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a text message. “We will continue to fight terror in every area.”

Israel arrested hundreds of Palestinians in its search for the missing youths, whose bodies were found under rocks near Hebron on July 1. While Hamas denied its members were involved in the days following the killings, a Turkey-based Hamas official in August said the group was responsible. Citing official Israeli investigation documents, The New York Times reported Sept 5 that the plot to abduct the youths may not have been sanctioned by top Hamas leaders.

Location ‘Pinpointed’

Three other members of the Qawasmeh family were arrested in the area where the two militants were killed, Lerner said in a phone briefing with reporters. One family member, Hussam Qawasmeh, was indicted in an Israeli military court for allegedly helping to organise and aid the kidnapping.

“It’s about in the last week that we were able to pinpoint their location,” Mr Lerner said of the two militants killed. “We had named them almost immediately as Hamas terrorists who had carried out this attack, and today the mission was successful.”

The murder of the Israelis also spurred a revenge killing of an Arab teenager from Jerusalem. The suspects in that murder, three Israeli citizens, have been apprehended and indicted. BLOOMBERG