Israel army kills 2 Palestinians suspected of teens murder

Israeli troops on Tuesday killed two Palestinians named as suspects in the June murder of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank that sparked a spiral of tit-for-tat violence, the army said.

The murders culminated in a 50-day, full-scale war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza that claimed more than 2,200 lives.

Amer Abu Eisha and Marwan Qawasmeh, whom Israel has accused of carrying out the kidnappings and murders, were killed “in an exchange of fire” in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, the army said.

The two men were in a house in Hebron and gunfire broke out during a joint arrest operation by the Shin Bet internal security services and the army’s anti-terror unit, it indicated in a statement.

Residents told AFP they heard an exchange of fire during the assault, and that the army had also broken down the doors of several shops in the area.

Local youths threw stones at the soldiers near the scene of the raid, they said, and on Tuesday morning a general strike was being observed in the city.

The suspects “no longer pose a threat to Israeli civilians,” army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said on Twitter, posting pictures of the two men.

The army had already partially destroyed the two men’s homes on July 1, a day after the teenagers’ bodies were found. The demolitions were completed in August.

The June abduction of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach from a hitchhiking stop near Hebron sparked a huge Israeli search operation in which hundreds of Palestinians were arrested and at least five killed.

Israel blamed the kidnappings on Hamas militants.

The revenge killing by Jewish extremists of a Palestinian teenager in July led to a surge in tensions that helped trigger the war in and around Gaza that ended on August 26.

Earlier this month, Israel charged the prime suspect in the teens’ murders, Hossam Qawasmeh, with organising and financing the operation.