In a mourning notice, Hamas claimed Muhannad Shehadeh and Khaled Sabah, the two gunmen who killed four Israeli settlers   near the settlement of Eli, near Ramallah, as members of its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

Shehadeh previously served in Israeli prison, the Hamas statement added.

Hamas praised the operation as a "natural response" to the massacre in Jenin, where six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid on Monday, and plans to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Hamas stressed the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves by all possible means.