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Eli terrorists were Hamas operatives, previously imprisoned in Israel

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Israeli security authorities named the perpetrators as Mohannad Shahada and Khaled Sabah from the nearby Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Urif.

By World Israel News Staff

The two Palestinian terrorists who carried out a shooting attack at a gas station near Eli were affiliated with Hamas, and both had previously been arrested by Israeli security forces and incarcerated.

On Tuesday afternoon, the gunmen shot dead four Israeli men and boys – identified as Ofer Fairman, 64, Harel Masoud, 21, Elisha Antman, 17, and Nachman Shmuel Mordoff, 17 – and seriously wounded four others.

Israeli security authorities named the perpetrators as Mohannad Shahada and Khaled Saba from the nearby Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Urif.

Shahada and Sabah had both served brief prison sentences together on terror-related charges in the Hamas prisoners’ wing of the Megiddo correctional institute in northern Israel.

According to a Ynet report, Shahada was incarcerated from August through October 2020, and Sabah served time from July to November 2020.

Shahada was sentenced to just two months in prison for throwing stones at Israelis; Sabah was given a four-month sentence for hurling “explosive devices,” likely a Molotov cocktail or other improvised bomb.

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Judging by social media posts that depicted the pair together in a variety of social situations on numerous occasions, it appears that Shahada and Sabah were good friends rather than two random operatives instructed by Hamas to carry out the attack together.

The two men arrived at the gas station on Tuesday in a car, each armed with an M-16 assault rifle. According to witnesses, knives were found inside of the vehicle.

Shortly after the attack began, Shahada was shot dead at the scene by an armed civilian. Sabah stole a car from someone who had been pumping gas when the shooting started. He fled, sparking an hours-long manhunt culminating in a firefight with IDF troops. Sabah was shot and killed during the exchange.