Qassam Brigades confirms slain Hebron suspects were members

The Qassam Brigades "congratulates the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim people on the martyrdom of [al-Qassam] members Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha," read a statement posted on the Palestinian resistance faction's website.

The group said the pair had been killed while "defending their people and nation and fighting for freedom and dignity."

While admitting the two were al-Qassam members, however, the group has not explicitly taken responsibility for the abduction and murder of the three Jewish teens in June.

Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli army announced it had killed Qawasmeh and Abu Aisha after besieging the building in which they had been holed up in central Hebron.

Israeli authorities had accused the two men of having been recruited by a West Bank Palestinian named Hossam Qawasmeh – currently in Israeli custody – to help the latter kidnap three teenage Jewish settlers in June.

The Israeli authorities further claimed that Qawasmeh had confessed to receiving funds from Hamas to recruit Abu Aisha and Qawasmeh for the operation.

The Israeli government has repeatedly accused Hamas of kidnapping the three settlers, who went missing from a Jewish-only settlement in the southern West Bank on June 12 and later turned up dead.

Hamas has then dismissed the claims, describing them as "fabrications."

Since mid-June, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of West Bank Palestinians – including several Hamas lawmakers and former cabinet ministers – against the backdrop of the three settlers' death.

  Anadolu Agency