"[6] All of the arrested suspects were "quickly" released, reminding the editorial staff of The Washington Post of "Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's duplicitous response to acts of terrorism.
[10][11] Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed "full responsibility" for the attack and described it as a "heroic operation.
"[5][12] In a later CNN interview a Hamas leader living in Damascus, Khaled Mashal, vowed "resistance" if the international community did not force Israel to return to its 1967 borders.
"[15] According to an unnamed Israeli security official, this was the start of a Hamas campaign of "terrorist attacks" designed to foil the 2010 peace talks.
[16] Two days after the shootings, Hamas announced the formation of an alliance of 13 militant groups to launch a wave of "more effective attacks" against Israel, not ruling out suicide bombings when questioned.
[3] According to Al-Ahram an Egyptian newspaper , Hamas had originally planned to abduct the bodies, hoping to secure a mass prisoner release for their return.
The abductors had also reportedly hoped to sabotage the peace talks by provoking the IDF into launching a large-scale search for the victims in the Palestinian territories.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispatched Yuval Diskin and Gabi Ashkenazi, and directed them to respond to the attack without "any diplomatic constraints against the murderers, and act aggressively against those who sent them."
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the attack and said it was designed to "undermine the PLO's efforts to rally international support for the Palestinians's demands."
[23] Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United nations, said that "this attack must be recognized for what it is: a cynical and blatant attempt to undermine the direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations starting tomorrow.
Israeli forces killed Iyad Shilbaya, a commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, twelve others were arrested in the overnight operation between September 16 and 17.
[25] In a "fiery" speech shortly after the killings, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar rejected peace negotiations, asserting that "liberating" all of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is a religious and a moral duty.
[20] According to The Wall Street Journal, this and a second Hamas shooting in the West Bank two days later, "cast a shadow" over face to face peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority just as they were about to begin in Washington, D.C.[11] The Palestinian Authority responded to the shootings by arresting "dozens" of suspected Hamas activists in the West Bank.
[15] According to The Wall Street Journal, the attack "seemed aimed at torpedoing a new round of peace talks in Washington this week between Israel and the Palestinians.
A demonstration in Gaza in support of the attack was further cited as evidence that Hamas would not accept negotiations conducted by Mahmoud Abbas on their behalf.
The two dead were: Hamas swore revenge for the operation and congratulated the Palestinians of Hebron for "continuing to sacrifice shaheeds in the fight against Israel".