seen numerous confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians. Tensions between Itamar and the nearby Palestinian village of Awarta had been rising before the attack. Palestinians had accused settlers of cutting down olive trees, burning cars and shooting at Palestinian residents. Ten Palestinians and one Israeli were injured in a confrontation in the week before the attack, when Israeli soldiers were accused of using live fire to quell the clash. Perpetrators The attack was carried out by cousins Amjad Mahmad Awad (18) and Hakim Mazen Awad (17). Hakim was a high school student whose father, Mazen, is active in the PFLP. Mazen had previously been arrested and tried by the Palestinian Authority and served a five-year prison sentence for murdering a female cousin and burning her body. His uncle Jibril was a PFLP militant who had participated in a 2002 attack against Itamar which left four civilians dead, including three children, along with the settlement's security officer, and was killed in a 2003 clash with Israeli troops. Amjad Mahmad Awad was affiliated with the PFLP. He had been employed in Israel as a laborer, and was a student at Al-Quds Open University. The families of the two suspects initially denied the two committed the massacre. Hakim's mother falsely claimed her son had been at home the night of the murders and never left the house, saying that "five months ago Hakim underwent a surgery in his stomach and I'm sure he was tortured and forced into confessing". She later, however, acknowledged his involvement. Amjad's family claimed he had been in the village at the time of the Itamar murders. One relative said Hakim and Amjad did not know each other, as "one went to university, the other is in high school". He also claimed that if they had been guilty, they would have been captured within days, as "the whole world knows about Israel's advanced investigation abilities and its use of sophisticated means". Amjad and Hakim Awad had decided to carry out an attack on Itamar days before. Three days before the killings, they approached a PFLP member with a request for weapons, but were rebuffed. At midday on Friday, 11 March, they decided that they would enter Itamar later that night, and carry out an attack armed with knives. Several media sources, among them the Guardian and the Washington Post, first reported that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of