The Hamas terrorist organization claimed responsibility on Wednesday evening for the shooting on Monday that killed two Israeli women and a police officer, according to Israel’s Kan News.
The Samaria “operation” in which the three Israelis were killed was carried out jointly with Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a “military” arm of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, according to a Hamas statement.
According to the Palestinian terror group, the attack in al-Funduq in western Samaria was masterminded by Ja’far Dababaseh, whom it said was a former Israeli security detainee.
Dababaseh, who was wanted by Israel due to his continued involvement in terrorism, was reportedly killed during armed clashes with security forces in the village of Taluza near Nablus on Tuesday morning.
According to Arab reports, Israeli soldiers searched Dababaseh’s home in the nearby village of al-Badhan in an overnight raid.
The terrorists who carried out the shooting that killed Rachel Cohen, 73, Aliza Rice, 70, and Israel Police Master Sgt. Elad Yaakov Winkelstein, 35, remain at large. Seven others were wounded in the attack.
“My wife and I send heartfelt condolences to the families of the three people who were murdered in the terrible attack this morning, and wish ... a full recovery to those who were wounded,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to the attack.
“We will find the abhorrent murderers and settle accounts with them and with all those who aided them. No one will get away,” he added.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also condemned the Hamas attack as “an act of war” that will be “met with a decisive response” by the IDF.
