'Hamas planned to steal bodies of Kiryat Arba victims'

Egyptian newspaper reports terrorists said in interrogation that the attack was supposed to look like a kidnapping, cause peace talks' failure.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Kiryat arba attack police 311 AP (photo credit: Associated Press)
Kiryat arba attack police 311 AP
(photo credit: Associated Press)
The members ofHamas's military wing who carried out the terror attack in the WestBank near Kiryat Arba last month in which four Israeli's were killedplanned to steal the victims' bodies to make Israel believe theincident was a kidnapping, Egyptian weekly al-Ahram reported on Monday.
Accordingto the report, the terror suspects arrested by Palestinian securityforces following the attacks told their interrogators that theirmission was to stage a kidnapping, causing Israel to impose a massclosure of the West Bank and thus derail peace talks between Israel andthe Palestinian Authority. The terrorists hoped that PalestinianAuthority President Mahmoud Abbas would be forced to resign as a resultof the peace talks failing.
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The Palestinian sources cited in the report claimed that the attacks were carried out on the orders of Hamas leadership in Gaza and Damascus.
The plan to steal the bodies was prevented by a passing car which forced the terrorists to flee the scene.
The victims,Yitzhak Ames, 47, and his wife Tali Ames, 45, Kochava Even-Haim, 37, and Avishai Schindler, 24, were driving on Route 60 near the entrance to Kiryat Arba when their vehicle came under fire. The Ames couple had six children, including a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler.