It has been released for publication that the two Hamas terrorists, Marwan Kawasme (29) and Amar Abu Aisha (32) have been killed in a complex intelligence operation by the Shabak, IDF and SWAT teams in an overnight operation in Hebron.

The two were the terrorists who had kidnapped and murdered the three Israeli teenagers, Gilad Shaar (16), Naftali Frankel (16), and Eyal Yifrach (19).

Marwan Kawasme (left) and Amar Abu Aisha from Hebron are the Hamas terrorists who kidnapped and murdered Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel.

The three boys were kidnapped in Gush Etzion on June 12, 2014, near a hitchhiking post.

The IDF had attempted to arrest the two terrorists, when the murderers began to shoot back. The terrorists were killed in the exchange of fire.

READ: Ze’Ev Elkin says: Don’t release Hamas bodies until Hamas returns our IDF soldiers’ bodies.

READ: Netanyahu responds with grim satisfaction.

READ: Statement  by the Yifrach, Frankel and Shaar families.

Marwan Kawasme was part of the Hamas military infrastructure in Hebron that also carried out the 2010 Beit Hagai attack that killed four people.

In addition, Bashar Kawasme, Muhammad Kawasme and Taar Kawasme, the sons of Arafat Kawasme were arrested. Arafat Kawasme was arrested on July 14, charged with helping the killers after they murdered the boys.

IDF operation in Hebron to catch kidnapper/killers of 3 Jewish teenagers.

Shana Tova!

As usual, the Cave of the Patriarchs will be open to Jewish worshipers only on Thursday and Friday, the two days of Rosh Hashana, which are the first two days of the Hebrew month of Tishrei.

The closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque at the site, however, has apparently upset editors at the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency, a Palestinian Authority-backed media outlet which reported the news as follows:

“The Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron will be closed to Muslim worshipers on Thursday and Friday, an official at the mosque told Ma’an Sunday. Hijazi Abu Sneina told Ma’an the mosque would be open to Israeli settlers during the two days of Rosh Hashanah, or Jewish New Year, but closed to Muslims. The Ibrahimi Mosque, believed to be the burial place of the prophet Abraham, is located in central Hebron, a frequent site of tensions due to the presence of 500 Israeli settlers in the Old City. “

Ma’an fails to note that Jews are banned from entering the site on Islamic holidays. Nor does the news agency accurately report the fact that the site is open to all Jews, not just “settlers.” Moreover, the “tensions” referred to in the coverage are hardly due to the presence of Israelis in the city, but rather to the murderous Arab attacks on Jews who have made their homes in Hebron for the past decades.

Hebron is mentioned in the Bible as one of the four holy cities in Judaism; the capital is Jerusalem, and the others are Tzfat and Tiberias.

The Ibrahimi Mosque is the only intact Second Temple period structure in existence, located directly over the burial place of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The structure pre-dates Islam and Muslim conquest of the area.

The cave itself, known in Hebrew as the Cave of Machpelah, and the adjoining field were purchased literally thousands of years ago from Ephron by the patriarch Abraham specifically for the purpose of using it as a burial site for his wife Sarah, who had just died.

One can find the reference in the Book of Genesis. (23:1-20) Later in the same Book of Genesis it is written how the rest of the patriarchs and matriarchs were also buried there, with the exception of Rachel, who died in childbirth on the road near Bethlehem.

In Israel, very few locations are free of Jewish historical reference; most link back way before the time of the founding of the Palestinian Authority or Islamic existence — a fact that appears to irk the entity to this day.

Another Hamas suspect has been arrested in connection with the June 12 abduction and murder of three Israeli teens in Gush Etzion. Hebron resident Fares Qawasmeh, a 31-year-old doctor, is accused of being involved in planning the murder.

Qawasmeh was taken into custody by Palestinian Authority security forces, according to a report broadcast Tuesday on Israel’s Channel 10 television news.

The report was later confirmed in a post on the Twitter social networking site by Qatar-based senior Hamas official Hussam Badran. “The only crime Qawasmeh committed was to speak for Hamas at the victory celebrations for Gaza after the fighting against Israel,” Badran tweeted.

A number of local Arab residents aided the Qawasmeh family in carrying out the plot by hiding and sheltering the fugitives. Among them was Wael Qarameh, indicted by Israeli authorities in late August on charges of harboring a fugitive – Hebron resident Hussam Qawasmeh, who was indicted last week on multiple charges for masterminding the abduction and murder.

Qawasmeh, a Hebron resident was arrested on July 11 in a joint Shin Bet – IDF sting operation in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat. He had fled his home with the aid of friends and relatives in hopes of trying to make his way to Jordan on the strength of a false ID. Shuafat is the same Arab neighborhood where massive violence tore apart three Jerusalem Light Rail stations following the murder of a young Arab teen, the day after the bodies of the three Israeli teens were found.

Hussam Qawasmeh confessed under interrogation to having masterminded the plot to kidnap and murder the teens, and to having obtained financing for the operation from Hamas in Gaza. He admitted to having obtained false identity papers and fleeing as soon as the bodies of the three murder victims were unearthed from their hurriedly dug, shallow stony graves in the field he purchased in Halhul, along Highway 60 north of Hebron.

Marwan Qawasmeh – his kinsman – and Amar Abu Aisha, both also residents of Hebron, are suspected of being the ones to having joyfully carried out those plans. The actual gunshots that murdered the boys and the celebrations of their attackers after the murders in the getaway car were heard on a recording made on a police hotline via a call from one of the boys as he desperately sought rescue. The two murderers, meanwhile, remain at large.

Security sources revealed after last week’s indictment that Hussam Qawasmeh received a total of approximately NIS 200,000 ($61,500) from his brother in Gaza, Hamas terrorist Mahmoud Ali to pay for the operation. The costs included two vehicles – the abduction car and the getaway car – as well as four firearms and other expenses. Mahmoud was one of more than 1,000 Arab inmates freed in an October 2011 prisoner swap deal with Israel in exchange for the return of former IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Hamas and allied terrorists in 2006.

Cleared for publication:  Hebron resident Hussam Qawasme was apparently paid NIS 220,000 – $61,500 – for the June 12 abduction and murder of three Israeli teens by Hamas terrorists in Gush Etzion.

Qawasme was arrested July 11 in connection with the attack, which he is credited with helping to mastermind. He reportedly received the funds for the job from his brother, a convicted Hamas official in Gaza.

According to information released Thursday by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) it was Qawasme who hid the bodies of 19 year old Eyal Yifrah, 16 year old Naftali Frenkel and 16 year old Gilad Sha’ar, kidnapped and murdered on June 12. He had purchased the field where the bodies were stashed in shallow graves along Highway 60 in the town of Halhul, halfway between Hebron and Gush Etzion.

“In an intelligence operation launched by the Shin Bet, Hussam Qawasme was tracked down and arrested in a hideout in the Shuafat refugee camp,” the Shin Bet stated.

Hussam Qawasme was given up by another arrested accomplice who had hidden him and was also recently indicted. Hussam himself was incarcerated in Israel from 1995 to 2002. He was convicted on charges of involvement in Hamas terrorist activities, including participating in a cell that carried out bombing attacks.

“He is the son of a family whose sons have been involved in severe terror attacks on behalf of Hamas,” the Shin Bet added.

The Hamas operative planned to flee to Jordan after stashing the bodies of the three teens but instead was caught and arrested, according the a statement released Thursday by the Shin Bet following Qawasme’s indictment in the IDF military court.

Hussam Qawasme is described in court papers as a ‘command level Hamas operative.’

His brother in Gaza – who allegedly bankrolled the operation – was freed by Israel as part of the prisoner exchange deal that secured the Oct. 18, 2011 return of former IDF soldier Gilad Shalit from five years of captivity by Hamas.

The money was transferred from Gaza to Qawasme in Hebron via cash-stuffed envelopes carried by Hussam’s mother and another, unnamed woman, the indictment alleged. Among the purchases were a vehicle with which to carry out the attack and four guns.

The two kidnapper-killers, relative Marwan Qawasme and Amer Abu Aisha are still at large.

But under interrogation, Hussam Qawasme, 40, named other Hebron family members who had planned to help him escape to Jordan with a fake ID after the attack. Hisham Qawasme, 35; Jamil Qawasme, 28; and Hamas member Hassan Qawasme, 45, are all in Israeli custody.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has sharply condemned the Israeli government’s decision Sunday to designate a lot in Gush Etzion as state land.

The decision came as a direct result of the kidnapping and murder by Hamas terrorists of three teenage yeshiva students on the site in early June.

The U.S. claimed the move would damage future final status talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity,” a Statement Department spokesman said. “This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve and construction tender they issue, is counterproductive to Israel’s stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians. We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision.”

In general, the U.S. has opposed Israeli development in Judea and Samaria, although most past administrations have ameliorated their concerns, depending on circumstance.

The 4,000-dunam lot is located adjacent to the Gush Etzion community of Alon Shevut, not far from bus stop and hitchhiking post where Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha’ar were abducted by Hamas terrorists and then murdered on June 12. Their bodies were found three weeks later in Judea after a massive manhunt by thousands of IDF soldiers and security personnel, in a field owned by the Hebron-based Qawasme clan along Highway 60 between Hebron and Gush Etzion in the PA town of Halhul.

Prior to the designation, the Judea and Samaria civil administration had designated the status of the area — known as Geva’ot — as ‘survey land’ as ordered by the political establishment after the bodies of the three teens were recovered. The move froze the status of the area and prevented construction plans from moving through the system until a determination could be made about its future, according to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

Geva’ot is not new. In 1982, an Israeli cabinet decision laid the groundwork for development of the area as an IDF Nahal community, which started in 1984 and then closed two years later. For the next 10 years the site became the home of the Shevut Yisrael Yeshiva, with small pre-fab homes. In 1998, The Gush Etzion Regional Council reached out to the government, requesting construction of a full-scale city on the site similar to Ariel, Ma’ale Adumim, Modi’il Illite and Beitar Illit. Plans began but two years later were dropped due to international diplomatic pressure. In 2008, once again the plans were picked up and moved forward in 2009, especially after the Annapolis Summit came to naught. By 2012, initial authorization for 523 homes was secured from the Defense Ministry — and there the project was frozen.

Gush Etzion is well within the area Israel is likely to retain in any final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

The PA immediately responded that the site belongs to districts of two separate PA-controlled cities: Bethlehem and Hebron. Bethlehem is located across the road and is more than five and a half miles north. Hebron is the same distance, to the south.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, declared Sunday evening, “The settlement enterprise is illegal,” in a sweeping condemnation of every Jewish city, town and village built in Judea and Samaria, including any that might be built on the newly-designated state land. Nearly 400,000 Jews now live in Judea and Samaria.

He, too, said the move would “bring about a further deterioration” in talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority – which at this point includes Hamas in its unity government.

The PA has had to be repeatedly dragged to the negotiations table over the years, each time with ‘enticements’ and ‘good will gestures’ forced on Israel by the United States.

An IDF checkpoint in Hebron was burned down on Friday.

An Arab terrorist threw a firebomb at the checkpoint structure, which is essentially a caravan. The structure caught fire and burned down to the ground.

There were soldiers inside the building, but they were able to get out in time.

It is not clear why the soldiers did not shoot the terrorists.

Photo: Artzi / Rotter.net

The checkpoint separates the PA controlled section of Hebron from the Israel controlled section.

It is used solely to service the Arab population allowing them passage back and forth.

Jews are generally not allowed into the PA controlled section of Hebron, which makes up most of the area of this ancient Jewish city.

A senior Hamas spokesman in Turkey said that the terrorist organization was responsible for the kidnap-murder of three Israeli yeshiva students two months ago, contradicting original Hamas claims that an independent terrorist cell murdered the boys.

The Hamas official, Salach Al-Aruri, boasted of the “heroic action of the Kassam Brigades who kidnapped three settlers in Hebron.”

The three teenagers, Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Sha’ar and Naftali Fraenkel, 16 were abducted and murdered near Hebron. Their bodies were not found for more than two week, and their disappearance galvanized the country in prayer and in a demand that Israel smash the Hamas terrorist infrastructure.

The statement that “credited” Hamas with the kidnap-murders was made at a Turkish conference of the World Association of Muslim Scholars.

If that is what interests Muslim academics, it says a lot about their warped ideology.