Cell responsible for Jerusalem attack killed?

Jerusalem Post:

IDF troops and elite police counter-terror commandos killed four top terrorists in Bethlehem on Wednesday evening.

While attempting to arrest the men, who made up the Islamic Jihad's leadership in the city, the troops came under fire near the Bethlehem Mukata (government building), and killed all four in a gun battle.

Palestinian claims that the fugitives were responsible for planning last week's attack on Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, in which gunman Ala Abu Dhaim killed eight students, were flatly denied by Israeli security officials, who said that the troops had not planned to kill the fugitives.

Muhammad Shehadeh, 45, Ahmed Balbul, 48, Amad el-Kamel, 35 and Issa Zohara, 36 were all in direct contact with Islamic Jihad's leadership in Syria and were following ordered issued by the organization's leaders there.

Shehadeh has been wanted by Israel for the past eight years for involvement in planning and executing terror attacks in which Israelis were killed and wounded.

When the men's bodies were inspected, they were found to be carrying rifles and pistols.

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Islamic Jihad is made up of Iranian backed religious bigots. It must be destroyed before there can be peace in the Middle East. If they were in contact with the Syrians, it is likely that they were also in contact with Hezballah and the Iranians. The story also indicates another member of Islamic jihad was killed in a predawn gun battle. The dead man's father was arrested for harboring a fugitive.

The International Herald Tribune has more on the operation. It reports that Israel used undercover troops. It says the four were killed while riding in their car in central Bethlehem.