Hamas claims deadliest attack in Israel in 2 years

By Adam Entous and Joseph Nasr

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Hamas claimed responsibility on Friday for shooting eight students at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, the most lethal Palestinian attack on Israelis in two years and a blow to international efforts to revive peace talks.

The Islamists, who also claimed a suicide bombing a month ago, had vowed to hit back after an Israeli offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip killed more than 120 people in recent days.

A lone gunman killed the young men on Thursday at the Merkaz Harav religious college. But the Israeli government said it would keep talking with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas's secular rival in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Washington, sponsor of a peace process already buffeted by the killing of dozens of civilians in Israel's latest Gaza offensive, said the fact that the talks were continuing was "the most important thing".

Some mourners at funerals for the dead, who were studying at a bastion of the Jewish settler movement in the West Bank, were less positive about the process. And Israel's security minister said hostile Arabs like the dead gunman should be forced out of the mixed city of Jerusalem and sent to live in the West Bank.

"The Hamas movement announces its full responsibility for the Jerusalem operation," a Hamas official told Reuters in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas seized control from Abbas in June. He spoke on condition of anonymity and the group released no official statement.

A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing called the attack "an honour we have not claimed yet". An Israeli official said authorities were still investigating the incident.

The attack and the Hamas claim prompted celebrations in Gaza. A White House spokesman called that "fairly disgusting".