Remember when Katie Zavadski of NY Magazine, Sheera Frenkel of Buzzfeed and Jon Donnison of the BBC reported that Hamas was not behind the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens, Gil-ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach?
That gave rise to the widespread false meme that Israeli invented the Hamas connection in order to start the Gaza war (never mind that the Gaza war actually was started and continued due to Hamas rocket fire on Israeli cities, not by Israeli reaction to the kidnapping).
Since then, Hamas representatives repeatedly have admitted it was a Hamas operation. Indeed, they bragged about it, though Hamas denies that the most senior Hamas officials were involved. Israeli spokesmen not only identified the murderers, but also how they were funded and coordinated by Hamas operatives in Gaza and Turkey.
Israel has been searching for the two murderers for several months. Israel finally found them last night in Hebron. After a firefight, the two were killed and Hamas, once again, admits they were Hamas operatives, as The Times of Israel reports:
Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha were both killed during an early Tuesday arrest attempt in Hebron, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement….At around 3 a.m., the forces descended on the house where the suspects were believed to be hiding and began firing heavily on the home. Both were killed after refusing to surrender.“We opened fire, they returned fire and they were killed in the exchange,” IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told Reuters. “We have visual confirmation for one. The second one, we have no visual confirmation, but the assumption is he was killed.”Hamas confirmed in a statement the two were killed, Israeli media reported.“Two members of the Izz A-Din al-Qasam brigades, Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha, were killed after a journey of sacrifice and giving,” Hamas spokesman Hussam Badran said in a statement. “This is the path of resistance and we walk it side by side.”An armed bulldozer was also used to destroy the home the two were in during the operation, Israel’s Channel 10 news reported.
The Jerusalem Post further reports:
Security forces received intelligence information about the hideout over the past week, he added. The IDF surrounded the home, where the two were hiding in a pit located in the basement. Soldiers fired at the walls of the structure and called on the suspects to leave, but those calls were ignored. “We wanted to arrive from the advantage of height because we did not want to encounter them on the same floor and conduct face to face combat,” Yadai said.”At a certain stage, they came out and opened fire,” Yadai said. “One was killed on the spot, and one fell into a pit and I assume he was killed,” Yadai added. The body of one terrorist has been identified. One of the suspects was armed with an M-16 and the second came out shooting with a Kalashnikov. The Counter-Terrorism Unit threw grenades into the area where the second suspect fell, and the army is searching for the body.
The Palestinian Media Center posted the following video:
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