Shooting attack in Tel Aviv serves as Palestinian response to Israel's crimes: Hamas

An Islamic Hamas movement official said Wednesday the shooting attack in Tel Aviv which killed four Israelis is a response to Israeli crimes against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Mushir al-Masri, a senior Gaza-based Hamas official, told Xinhua that his movement "blesses the attack which is a response to the Israeli crimes in Gaza and the West Bank."

Earlier on Wednesday night, Israeli media said two Palestinian gunmen from the southern West Bank city of Hebron went into a supermarket in Tel Aviv and opened fire, where four Israelis were killed and three others injured.

An Israeli police spokeswoman said in a press statement that the two gunmen were arrested and one of them was under questioning.

The two Palestinians, who are cousins, came from the village of Yatta close to Hebron, according to the police spokeswoman's statement.

"This operation was carried out after a period of time, where some thought that the Intifada (the Palestinian uprising) ... stopped due to the arrests and the security cooperation, but it shows that the Intifada is going on," said al-Masri.

Hamas said in an emailed statement issued in the West Bank that the two Palestinians who carried out the attack "are members in Hamas movement."

Hamas did not directly claim responsibility for the attack, but said in the statement that the two attackers, Khaled Makhamra and Mohamed Makhamra, are the nephews of two Hamas members who are imprisoned in Israel.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a statement that the attack "is a natural response to the daily Israeli violations, mainly the daily field executions of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza."

"It is a message to the Zionists that armed resistance is the only means for gaining the rights back," it said. Endi