Eitam and Na’ama Henkin were shot to death on Oct. 1 as they drove near the village of Itamar in Judea and Samaria with their four children. Photo: Facebook.

JNS.org – Israel’s security agency the Shin Bet announced on Monday the arrest of five members from a Hamas terrorist cell in Nablus who are suspected of the murder of Eitam and Na’ama Henkin, despite earlier claims of responsibility for the attack by a terror unit within Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.

The Henkins were shot to death on Oct. 1 as they drove near the village of Itamar in Judea and Samaria with their four children, who are now left orphans. The Shin Bet arrested the terrorists through “joint intelligence and operational activity” with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel police, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The investigation found that the terror cell “belonged to Hamas in Nablus, and was made up of five operates, each of which had a set role. One operative ensured the road was open. Three operatives drove in a car — a driver and two shooters. The cell commander was not in the vehicle. Additional suspects are in custody on suspicion of assisting the cell,” the Shin Bet said.

“After receiving confirmation that the road was ‘clean,’ the shooting cell set off in their car, identified a vehicle belonging to the Henkin family, and opened fire. After the [victims’] car stopped, two members of the cell got out of their car, and fired again, from very short range, on those in the vehicle,” the Shin Bet added.

At that point one of the men was accidentally shot, which caused the terrorists to flee and spare the lives of the Henkins’ four children. The suspects are currently being interrogated, and have admitted to participating in two other shooting attacks.

Meanwhile on Monday, the PA’s Abbas accused Israel of escalating tensions in the wake of a string of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis in recent days.

“The Israeli side and its government have an interest in dragging things into a cycle of violence and are trying through escalation at Al-Aksa (mosque compound) and settler attacks to escape their political impasse and international isolation,” Abbas said in a statement, AFP reported.