August 2010 West Bank shooting attack

Hamas declared the arrest of the attackers by the Palestinian Authority "treason."[6] All of the arrested suspects were "quickly" released, reminding the editorial staff of The Washington Post of "Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's duplicitous response to acts of terrorism."[7]

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed "full responsibility" for the attack and described it as a "heroic operation."[5][12][13] In a separate statement, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, "Hamas blesses the Hebron operation and considers it as a normal reaction to the occupation crime."[5][12]

In a later CNN interview a Hamas leader living in Damascus, Khaled Mashaal, vowed "resistance" if the international community did not force Israel to return to its 1967 borders. When asked about the August attacks he stated that Hamas would continue to "kill illegal settlers on our land,"[4] although Hamas did not actually carry out any such attacks in the forthcoming period.

In the city of Jabalia in northern Gaza, "hundreds" of Hamas supporters celebrated the killings in the street after the evening prayer, as an imam urged them on over the loudspeakers of the mosque in the hours before Hamas acknowledged responsibility for the killings. In Gaza city, more than 3,000 Palestinians celebrated the attack.[14]

Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri spoke at the celebration, criticizing Mahmoud Abbas for entering negotiations on the grounds that Abbas is "representing only himself." According to Masri, killing the four Israelis "was the Palestinian people’s response to the talks."[15]

According to an unnamed Israeli security official, this was the start of a Hamas campaign of "terrorist attacks" designed to foil the 2010 peace talks.[16] Two days after the shootings, Hamas announced the formation of an alliance of 13 militant groups to launch a wave of "more effective attacks" against Israel, not ruling out suicide bombings when questioned. [17]

Other analysts believe that the "true target" of the spate of attacks is the Palestinian Authority.[3]

According to Al-Ahram an Egyptian newspaper , Hamas had originally planned to abduct the bodies, hoping to secure a mass prisoner release for their return. The abductors had also reportedly hoped to sabotage the peace talks by provoking the IDF into launching a large-scale search for the victims in the Palestinian territories. These plans were foiled by the arrival of another car on the scene, causing the killers to flee.[18]

Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak referred to the attack as a "very grave incident" and said the Israeli military will "do everything they can to capture the murderers."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispatched Yuval Diskin and Gabi Ashkenazi, and directed them to respond to the attack without "any diplomatic constraints against the murderers, and act aggressively against those who sent them."

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, who was acting prime minister at the time of the incident because Prime Minister Netanyahu was abroad, said, "There are those who continue to take the path of terror and are busy killing innocents," and "Today it is clearer more than ever that the real obstacle to peace is terrorism and the extremists who will do anything to send the entire region up in flames. It is incumbent on the Palestinian Authority to fulfill its obligations in the territories that are under its purview."[5]

Palestinian Authority President President Mahmoud Abbas said that the attack in the Hebron was designed to "disrupt the peace process. and can't be regarded as an act of resistance."

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the attack and said it was designed to "undermine the PLO's efforts to rally international support for the Palestinians's demands." He said that the attack was in contradiction with the national interests of the Palestinians and the PA's strategic vision.[19]

Palestinian security forces arrested up approximately 250 Hamas supporters in the West Bank, Hamas called the arrests an act of "treason."[20]

Israeli settlers were reportedly "enraged" by the attack.[15] The chair of the South Mount Hebron settlers’ council, Tzviki Bar-Hai, asserted in an interview with a broadcast journalist that "For the past 100 years there has been a link between the Jewish people’s desire to live and the Arab people’s desire to kill us."[15] The day after the attack, several dozen settler youths stoned Palestinians near Beit Hagai—home of the four shooting victims—and attempted to set fire to a Palestinian field in the locality. A second group of settlers entered a Palestinian neighborhood in Hebron and attempted to stone residents.[21]

Yesha Council, the largest of the Israeli settler organizations announced that it would stop obeying the Israeli government's construction freeze at 6 p.m. Wednesday, September 1, mere hours before peace talks are scheduled to begin in Washington, D.C., and that construction would go forward on "hundreds" of new homes in the settlements.[3] The Palestinian Authority countered by announcing that it would pull out of the peace talks if the building freeze ends.[3] A spokesman for the Israeli government said that the construction freeze would continue thorough September 26 as scheduled, and that Israel would proceed with the peace talks.[3] However, he also said that attacks of this kind make it difficult for Israel to make compromises to achieve a peace agreement.[3]

On September 1, 2010, in a direct response to the shooting, activist settlers and "hundreds" of members of Likud holding placards that read "They shoot, we build" began construction in settlements across the West Bank, including a structure at the entrance to Kiryat Arba, very near the site of the attack.[22]

Human Rights Watch responded by calling on Hamas to cease attacks on civilians.[23] Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United nations, said that "this attack must be recognized for what it is: a cynical and blatant attempt to undermine the direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations starting tomorrow."[24]

Palestinian Authority and Israel forces started arresting Hamas supporters. Israeli forces killed Iyad Shilbaya, a commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, twelve others were arrested in the overnight operation between September 16 and 17. Hamas military wing said it is responsible for the killing at the end of August of four Jewish settlers in the West Bank.[25]