Tel Aviv, July 15 -- Seven senior Hamas terrorists who were released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange and deported to Gaza were killed in an Israeli airstrike last week, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Defence Forces announced Monday.

The targeted operatives, all members of Hamas's Judea and Samaria "headquarters," were involved in recruiting terrorists and coordinating attacks from Gaza into Judea and Samaria.

Among those killed were Riyad Asila and Bassem Abu Sanina, who carried out the 1998 stabbing murder of Israeli civilian Haim Kerman in Jerusalem.

Both were sentenced to lengthy prison terms but were released as part of the deal in which Israel freed 1,027 security prisoners in exchange for captured IDF...