Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Israel Retaliates at Hamas for Deaths of 3 Teens; Attacks 34 Targets on Hamas Power Base of Gaza

Hours after three Israeli teenagers who  disappeared from the West Bank on June 12 were found dead, the Israeli air force carried out an attack overnight on what an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson described as 34 targets in Gaza, the Slate website reports today (July 1, 2014).

Although the prevailing Palestinian political force in the West Bank is the moderate Fatah party, Israel believes Hamas (which is still considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department) perpetrated the murder of the teenagers -- "Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night -- and has struck the group's power base, Gaza.

Members of Netanyahu's Likud party are calling for the eradication of Hamas.

Israel suspects that Hamas-affiliated militants named Marwan Qawasameh and Amar Abu Aisha are responsible for the murder of the three teenagers; less than five hours after the announcement of the teens' deaths, Israeli forces cleared Qawasameh and Aisha's homes in the West Bank city of Hebron and then destroyed them with explosives. The whereabouts of the two suspects are unknown.

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