Three Palestinians were killed on Thursday (May 4) in an operation by Israeli security forces in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli internal security service (Shin Beth) announced.
“This morning, during a joint operation by Shin Beth, the army and the police, Hamas militants Hassan Ktnani and Maed Mitzsri were killed. These terrorists had murdered Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee on April 7 in a shooting attack near Hamra” in the West Bank, Shin Bet said in a statement. The intelligence service added that one of their accomplices, Ibrahim Hura, was also killed during the raid. According to photographs taken by journalists present at the scene, clashes broke out after the assault between Palestinians and Israeli forces, during which several people were injured.
Shortly before, the Palestinian health ministry reported the deaths of three Palestinian "martyrs" during the Israeli operation.
On April 7, Lucy (48), and her daughters Maia (20) and Rina (16), were attacked while driving in the northern West Bank, according to the daily Israeli Ha'aretz. During the attack, a Palestinian was also injured.
Both young women died instantly. Their mother succumbed to her injuries on April 10. All three had dual British and Israeli nationality and lived in the settlement of Efrat. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack soon after, in response to the attack "on the Palestinian people and the Al-Aqsa Mosque" in Jerusalem.
"Unprecedented Crime"
The affair had greatly moved Israeli opinion. Leo Dee, the father and husband of the Israeli victims, had announced that he felt no hatred towards the murderers of his family according to the Associated Press agency.
Clashes broke out on Wednesday April 5 at night inside this place of worship, considered one of the most important in the world by Muslims. Denouncing "an unprecedented crime", the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, called on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank "to go en masse to the mosque to defend it". Several salvoes of rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip and from Lebanon towards Israel.
The number of Palestinians killed so far this year now stands at 105. Nineteen Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian were killed during the same period, according to an Agence France-Presse tally compiled from official Israeli and Palestinian sources. These statistics include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, including minors, and three members of the Arab minority.
