The Shin Bet, IDF and Judea and Samaria district police uncovered an extensive Hamas terror structure in Ramallah and the Binyamin region, and arrested suspects including two men who confessed to taking part in the brutal October 2000 lynching of two IDF soldiers, security forces announced Thursday.

Arrests were made in June of Palestinian security suspects, some of whom formed a Hamas field command in that region of the West Bank, police said.

Two of those questioned confessed to being involved in the beating to death of IDF reservists Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz at the PA Ramallah police station, where the two were taken after getting lost.

The two suspects were charged at the Judea Military Court on August 5, police added.

“We notified the families of the victims about the arrests after the investigation, and before publication of it. We acted with sensitivity,” police spokesman Dudi Asraf added.

“We told the families that the Israel Police and the security forces have not forgotten their sons, and that those involved in the crime will be tried irrespective of the 12 years that passed since the crime was committed,” Asraf said. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 08/10/12)