Israel Attacks Hamas Targets After Missing Teens Found Dead

(TEL AVIV, Israel ) - Israeli naval boats have struck alleged training facilities of Hamas militants in northern Gaza after the bodies of three abducted teenagers were found.

The attacks followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow that "Hamas will pay" for the slayings in the West Bank.

The bodies of Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frankel, 16, were found in a field north of the city of Hebron.

The Islamist movement Hamas denies involvement and has accused Israel of using the deaths as a pretext for a planned military escalation against Palestinians.

"We reject all Israeli allegations and threats against us," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

"We are already used to it and will know how to defend ourselves. No Palestinian group, Hamas or any other group, has taken responsibility for the action and thus the Israeli version can't be trusted."

The three Israeli victims were last seen at a hitchhike stop north of Hebron as they were returning home from their seminary in a nearby Jewish settlement.

Israel believes that two alleged Hamas members named Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aysha abducted the three and shot them soon afterwards. The two men remain at large but troops blew up their homes early on Tuesday, Palestinian witnesses said.

After 18 suspenseful days and nights, during which large-scale arrest raids took place in the West Bank and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip escalated, Israelis reacted with shock at the teens' fate.

Hundreds of youths gathered in central Jerusalem's Zion and Tel Aviv's Rabin squares, lighting candles and singing.

"Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay," Netanyahu said. "They were abducted and murdered in cold blood by animals."

President Mahmoud Abbas called an urgent meeting of the Palestinian leadership on Tuesday to discuss "the implications" of the discovery of the bodies.

Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner vowed that Israel would bring the perpetrators to justice.

"The terrorists who carried it out are Hamas terrorists. We are pursuing them in order to bring them to justice," he said.

A senior Hamas official warned Israel against reprisals, saying they would open "the gates of hell".

A wave of rocket attacks against southern Israel by militants in the Gaza Strip began about 1am on Tuesday, local time. A rocket slammed into open ground in the Negev desert region. An army statement said nobody was hurt.

Shortly afterwards the Palestinian Interior Ministry reported about 30 Israeli air strikes on deserted militant training sites across Gaza but there was no immediate word of casualties.

The ministry said that, among targets hit by F-16 fighters, were bases of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop on Tuesday urged both sides to refrain from any escalation of violence, saying it would only hinder the peace process between Israel and Palestine. But she condemned the murder of innocent civilians, and expressed her condolences to the families of the three Israeli teenagers.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to continue security co-operation "despite the tragedy and the enormous pain on the ground".

French President Francois Hollande called it a "cowardly murder" and said everything possible should be done to prevent there being more victims and to avoid an escalation of violence.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "deeply saddened" by the "appalling and inexcusable act of terror perpetrated against young teenagers".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon blamed the "heinous act" on "enemies of peace" and called on all sides to exercise restraint, a spokesman said.

Following the disappearance of the teenagers, Israel launched a vast search and arrest operation, which also sought to lay waste to Hamas' West Bank network.

More than 400 Palestinians were arrested, two-thirds of them Hamas members, and five people died in clashes sparked by the campaign, dubbed Operation Brother's Keeper.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the bodies, which were undergoing forensic identification, were found "following extensive searches" in the Palestinian territory.

Senior Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the army had found the bodies buried under rocks in an open field between Halhul and Beit Kahil, two Palestinian towns outside Hebron. The families had been notified by the military.

"They know it's the three; they will know for sure after they do the autopsy," one of the officials said.

The three appeared to have been shot dead, most likely "very close to the kidnap" time, the official said, and the prime suspects had still not been caught.

Israeli troops shot dead a young Palestinian early on Tuesday during a raid into the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security and medical officials said.

They named the dead youth as Yusuf Abu Zagher, 18, and said the incident appeared unrelated to Israeli operations following the discovery of the three teenagers.