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The two Palestinian men suspected of kidnapping and killing three Israeli teens in June were killed this week in a firefight with Israeli troops during an operation to apprehend them.

Marwan Kawasme and Omar Abu Aysha were killed Sept. 23 in Hebron, where Israeli troops had surrounded the house in which they were hiding, more than three months after the search for the suspects began.

Three other Palestinians suspected of involvement in the kidnapping, all of them members of the Kawasme family, also were arrested during the operation.

“We promised the families that we would find the murderers. This morning, we did just that,” said the IDF’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz. “This isn’t a consolation for the grieving families, but I hope that knowing we reached their children’s murderers may slightly comfort them.”

The bodies of Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frenkel, a dual Israeli-American citizen, were discovered June 30 in a shallow grave in a field near Hebron, 18 days after they went missing, following a massive search. The teens had been abducted from a junction in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem.

Rachel Frenkel, the mother of 16-year-old Naftali, told the New York Times that her six other children cheered when she told them of the deaths of the suspected kidnappers, but that she had “no emotional reaction.”

“My kids are happy that the bad guys are gone,” Frenkel told the newspaper. “We were worried about these two dangerous people, with weapons, having nothing to lose being out there. It’s a relief to know that they won’t hurt any other innocent people.” — jta