This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/world/middleeast/israel.html

The article has changed 11 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 8 Version 9
Israeli Forces Kill 2 Suspects in Murder of Jewish Teenagers Israeli Forces Kill 2 Suspects in Murder of Jewish Teenagers
(about 5 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men early Tuesday whom they suspected of abducting and murdering three Israeli teenagers in June, according to a military spokesman, closing a crucial chapter in what became the bloodiest period of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades. JERUSALEM — Israeli troops closed a significant chapter in this summer’s bloody escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Tuesday by cornering and killing the two men they suspected of kidnapping and murdering three Israeli teenagers in June.
The spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said the two suspects, Marwan Qawasmeh, 29, and Amer Abu Aisha, 33, “came out shooting” around 6 a.m. as troops breached a two-story structure in Hebron where the men had been holed up for a week. Israeli military officials said the two suspects, Marwan Qawasmeh, 29, and Amer Abu Aisha, 33, had been holed up for a week in a two-story building in the West Bank city of Hebron, and refused to surrender when Israeli special forces units surrounded the building before dawn. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the two men “came out shooting” and that one was “killed on the spot,” while the other fell back into the destroyed building, where the troops then tossed grenades.
“In that exchange, one of them was killed on the spot,” Colonel Lerner said. “We have one confirmed kill and the second assumed killed. Because of how he fell back into the void and the grenades that we threw after him, it’s very unlikely that he survived.” The two men, who were affiliated with Hamas, the militant Islamist movement, were hailed as heroes at their funerals in Hebron on Tuesday afternoon. Hundreds of mourners who walked behind the white-shrouded body of Mr. Abu Aisha shouted, “Go on, Hamas, you’re our dignity, and we’re your bullets.”
The June 12 disappearance of the three teenagers — Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19 — as they hitchhiked home from the yeshivas they attended in the occupied West Bank, and the subsequent Israeli crackdown in Hebron and surrounding areas, helped set off an escalation of violence that culminated in a seven-week battle between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Israel quickly blamed Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates Gaza, for the kidnappings; Mr. Qawasmeh and Mr. Abu Aisha were affiliated with Hamas, though the Israeli authorities believe they acted without direction by, or perhaps even without the knowledge of, the movement’s leadership. Earlier in the day, Israeli forces shot and wounded a Palestinian man during a protest in Hebron in which several hundred people threw rocks and firebombs and burned tires, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.
After the three teenagers’ bodies were found under a pile of rocks in an open field not far from Hebron, Jewish extremists abducted a Palestinian 16-year-old old, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, in his East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat, beat him and burned him alive as an act of retaliation. A 29-year-old eyeglass-store owner with a history of psychiatric problems and two 16-year-old relatives, all ultra-Orthodox Jews, face murder charges in that case. The abduction of the Israeli teenagers and the crackdown that followed fueled tensions and intensifying violence that culminated in a seven-week battle between Israeli forces and Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip. The three teenagers — Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19 — were hitchhiking home from the yeshivas they attended in the occupied West Bank when they were kidnapped on June 12.
Amid escalating rocket fire from Gaza, the Israeli military launched an air campaign a week later that expanded into a ground invasion of Gaza. More than 2,100 Palestinians, including about 500 children, were killed over 50 days in Gaza, where thousands of buildings were destroyed, leaving more than 100,000 people homeless. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed before an agreement was reached on Aug. 26 to halt the hostilities. After their bodies were found 18 days later under a pile of rocks in an open field not far from Hebron, three Jewish extremists abducted a Palestinian 16-year-old old, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, in his East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat, beat him and burned him alive as an act of retaliation.
Hamas leaders praised Mr. Qawasmeh and Mr. Abu Aisha and described the kidnapping of the Israeli teenagers as part of the resistance to Israel’s occupation. Some Palestinians described the killings of the two suspects Tuesday morning as an extrajudicial assassination. Several schools in Hebron were closed in mourning. Within days of the West Bank kidnapping, Israel blamed Hamas, whose leaders at first denied knowing anything about it. In recent weeks, though, and again on Tuesday, several Hamas officials embraced the suspected kidnappers as members of their armed wing and praised their actions, though no evidence has yet been made public showing that the men acted on Hamas’s direction.
“This is premeditated murder,” Kamel Hmeid, the governor of Hebron, said on Voice of Palestine radio. “They have indicated from the start that they are not interested in arrests or confessions; they want them dead. It is a unilateral trial, judgment and verdict.” “We are proud of you, and our people will not forget your jihad,” Hussam Bardan, a Hamas spokesman, said of Mr. Qawasmeh and Mr. Abu Aisha, in a statement circulated on social media. “You trampled the occupation’s nose in the dirt and destroyed its so-called security legend.”
Rachel Fraenkel, Naftali’s mother, said she was relieved to hear that those accused of kidnapping the teenagers had been killed, because she would be spared having to see them in court or, potentially, released as part of a political deal. She said she had “no emotional reaction” to the news but that her other six children cheered when she told them what happened. Other Palestinians denounced the shootout early Tuesday as an extrajudicial assassination. The news of the killing caused a delay of several hours in the resumption of indirect talks between Israelis and the Palestinians in Cairo, on the terms for continuing the Aug. 26 cease-fire that halted the hostilities in and around Gaza.
“My kids are happy that the bad guys are gone,” Ms. Fraenkel said in a telephone interview. “We were worried about these two dangerous people, with weapons, having nothing to lose being out there. It’s a relief to know that they won’t hurt any other innocent people.” More than 2,100 Palestinians, about 500 of them children, were killed during the 50 days of fighting, along with 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel. Hamas and other militant groups fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, while Israeli forces destroyed more than 10,000 homes and many other buildings across Gaza through airstrikes and a ground invasion.
Mr. Qawasmeh studied Shariah in college, but opened a barbershop after learning to cut hair in prison — he had been arrested a total of eight times, by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, most recently in 2010. He is part of a large and prominent Hebron family with connections to Hamas. One of his relatives, Hussam Qawasmeh, was indicted earlier this month and is suspected of being the logistical commander of the cell, handling $60,000 sent in five installments from Gaza that the Israeli authorities say was used to purchase two cars, two M-16 rifles and two pistols used in the kidnapping. Mr. Qawasmeh, a barber, had served several terms in Israeli prisons and was part of a huge extended family in Hebron with Hamas connections. Mr. Abu Aisha also had served prison time, and was in a coma for a time after a swimming accident in 2007.
Mr. Abu Aisha was arrested twice by the Israeli authorities, in 2005 and 2006, and suffered a swimming accident in 2007 that left him in a coma. After he recovered, he held a series of odd jobs. “My kids are happy that the bad guys are gone,” Rachel Fraenkel, mother of Naftali and six surviving children, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “We were worried about these two dangerous people, with weapons, having nothing to lose, being out there. It’s a relief to know that they won’t hurt any other innocent people.”
Hussam Bardan, a Hamas spokesman, described Mr. Qawasmeh and Mr. Abu Aisha as members of the group’s armed wing and praised them for “a long life of sacrifice and giving.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel spoke to the parents of the murdered teenagers on Tuesday. Afterward, his office said, Mr. Netanyahu told his cabinet: “There is nothing that will take away their pain, and there is nothing that will return these amazing dear boys, but I said to them, there is accounting of justice.”
“We are proud of you, and our people will not forget your jihad,” Mr. Bardan wrote in statements circulated on social media. “You trampled the occupation’s nose in the dirt and destroyed its so-called security legend.” Two relatives of Mr. Qawasmeh who are suspected of assisting the kidnappers are facing trial. Three more — sons of Arafat Qawasmeh, who was arrested in July — were detained by Israeli forces during the operation Tuesday morning. Hussam Qawasmeh was indicted earlier this month and is suspected of being the logistical commander of the Hamas cell responsible for the abduction. Israeli officials say he handled $60,000 that was sent in five installments from Gaza to purchase two cars, two M-16 rifles and two pistols that were used in the kidnapping.
Colonel Lerner described the building where the men had hidden, in an urban section of northern Hebron, as a two-story “workshop” on a hill, with storefronts on the ground level and an area below that was not visible from the street. Another military official told Israel Radio that the building was owned by the Qawasmeh family. Three sons of another member of the family, Arafat Qawasmeh, who was arrested in July for assisting in the kidnapping, were themselves arrested at the site Tuesday morning. The bodies of the teenagers were found on a hilly expanse outside Hebron owned by the Qawasmeh family. Thousands of soldiers were involved in the search, in which hundreds of Palestinians, many connected to Hamas, were arrested.
Brig. Gen. Avi Yedai, head of the military’s forces in the West Bank, told Israel Radio that the two men accused of the kidnapping were given a chance to surrender, but did not respond. The Israelis then began destroying the building with a tractor and firing into the building, General Yedai said. The building where the suspects were killed on Tuesday — also owned by the Qawasmeh family — sits on a hillside in an urban area of north Hebron, next to Al Rubat Mosque. It contained a carpentry workshop and several stores including a shoe store. Colonel Lerner, the Israeli military spokesman, said troops used a tractor to breach the structure around first light on Tuesday. Hours after the confrontation ended, the smell of burned leather and iron remained strong, and the iron gates to the workshop appeared to have been sprayed with bullets.
Colonel Lerner said of the suspects, “They were armed, they were in hiding, they were fugitives and they understood we were trying to find them.” He added, “The intelligence indicated that their intention was to fight back, and we took the necessary precautions in order to address that threat.” “I came here to see the barbaric action committed by Israel,” said Ahmad Ab Laban, 50, one of several people from the neighborhood.
The kidnapping gripped and united Israeli society, and led to an intense crackdown in Hebron. Hundreds of people, including many Hamas political leaders, were arrested, and the surrounding hills were intensively searched for more than two weeks in hopes of finding the missing teenagers. The authorities now believe the three were killed shortly after they were picked up around 10 p.m. from a hitchhiking post that is frequented by West Bank yeshiva students.
According to court records that were made public along with the indictment of Hussam Qawasmeh, soon after the teenagers got into the car — a stolen Hyundai i35 — one of the Palestinians “pulled out a gun, pointed it at them and told them they had been kidnapped and they should keep quiet.” One of the three Israelis, Gilad Shaar, managed to dial the police emergency line from his cellphone, but his call was initially dismissed as a prank, even though he was heard to say “I’ve been kidnapped,” followed by what sound like gunshots, a painful groan and then celebratory cheers in Arabic.
The Israeli authorities announced that Marwan Qawasmeh and Mr. Abu Aisha were the prime suspects on June 26. The teenagers’ bodies were found four days later in a plot of land owned by the Qawasmeh family. It remains unclear how and where the suspects hid for three months, or how much help they had.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel praised the intelligence teams and special forces units that had found the men, and said he had called the parents of the teenagers after the operation was complete.
“There is nothing that will take away their pain, and there is nothing that will return these amazing dear boys, but I said to them there is accounting of justice,” Mr. Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, according to a statement from his office. “I told them that we executed the mission that we promised to execute, before them and all of the people of Israel.” He also told the cabinet: “We will continue to strike terror in every place.”