The Israeli army says it has killed two Palestinians suspected of kidnapping and murdering three Israeli teenagers in June, an incident stoking tensions in the region and eventually leading to sustained Gaza bombings.
The suspects were killed in a shootout which took place before dawn on Tuesday, the IDF said.
#BREAKING: Overnight, Amer Abu Aisha & Marwan Qawame - murderers of #EyalGiladNaftali - were killed in exchange of fire with IDF forces
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) September 23, 2014
Soldiers surrounded a house in Hebron, West Bank, with the two
main suspects in the fatal kidnapping - Marwan Kawasme and Amer
Abu Aysha – inside. The Palestinians eventually died in the
exchange of fire.
"We opened fire, they returned fire and they were killed in
the exchange," Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel
Peter Lerner said in a telephone briefing, cited by Reuters.
"We have visual confirmation for one. The second one, we have
no visual confirmation, but the assumption is he was
killed."
SpecialForces engaged #Hamas terrorists Kawasme & Abu Aish they no longer pose a threat to #Israeli civilians. #IDFpic.twitter.com/iUCnxzfQDf
— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) September 23, 2014
Three students Gil-Ad Shaer,16, Eyal Yifrah, 19, and Naftali
Fraenkel, 16, went missing while hitchhiking in Gush Etzion,
south of Jerusalem, on June 12.
The teenagers’ disappearance sparked a massive door-to-door
manhunt and hundreds of arrests in the Palestinian city of Hebron
and surrounding villages in the West Bank, with the Israeli
authorities accusing Hamas of the crime.
The teenagers were found dead almost three weeks after they
disappeared. The Israeli Air Force bombed dozens of sites in the
Gaza Strip hours after the dead bodies were discovered.
Hamas at first denied its involvement. However, the group’s
leader in exile - Khaled Meshaal - praised those who carried out
the kidnappings.
It was only in late August that, a senior Hamas official, Saleh
Al-Arouri, admitted for the first time, that members of
the group’s militant wing - Al-Qassam Brigades - were behind the
kidnapping and killings.
Shortly after the bodies of the Israeli students were found, a
16-year-old Palestinian - Mohammed Abu Khdeir – was kidnapped and
burnt alive. Three Israelis arrested for the crime confessed that
it was a revenge attack.
The deaths of the teenagers have fueled increased tensions
between Israel and the Palestinians and eventually led to the
seven-week-long war in Gaza.
Some 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the
attacks, according to Gaza officials. The death toll among the
Israelis amounted to 67 soldiers and six civilians.