Israel forces killed two Hamas-linked terrorist who were believed to be responsible for the abduction and murders of three teens in the West Bank in June.  The murders helped triggers weeks of war in Gaza in which more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed.

Israeli police and Defense Force (IDF) units managed to corner the two suspects, suspects Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha, in a building in Hebron.  When police tried to arrest the men, they tried to shoot their way out.

“We understood they intended to fight back and took precautions,” said Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner.

On 12 June, three Jewish teenagers – Israelis Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah, and dual US-Israeli citizen Naftali Frenkel – were kidnapped as they hitchhiked from their religious school to their homes.  One managed to call police and say they had been abducted, but police initially didn’t take the call seriously, and the hunt didn’t get underway for hours.  Their bodies were found weeks later buried under a pile of rocks in the West Bank.

Later on, a Hamas official told a Muslim scholars’ conference that the group’s military wing – with which Qawasmeh and Aby Aisha were affiliated – carried out the murders.