In the first such event of its kind to take place in 12 years, Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier on Sunday. Two other soldiers were killed and four injured, including apparent kidnapping victim Corporal Gilad Shalit, 19, who holds dual Israeli-French citizenship. Three groups have claimed responsibility for the attack on the soldiers -- the military wing of Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and the newly formed Army of Islam.

The soldiers were ambushed by Palestinian militants who had dug a 990-feet-long tunnel that led them to an area past the Israeli fence guards. The Israeli army claims that about eight gunmen from Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees split into three groups before firing on the soldiers. The attack, which occurred in the border area between Gaza Strip and Israel, was the first lethal one since the withdrawal of Israeli troops last September after 38 years of occupation. Palestinian militants have long held that kidnapping Israeli soldiers was the best negotiating pawn at their disposal to force Israel to release imprisoned Palestinians.

The Israeli government said it would hold Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responsible for the incident and demanded that the Fatah leader find those responsible for the slayings and kidnapping. "Let it be clear," said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, "We will reach everyone, no matter where they are, and they know it."

For his part, Palestinian Authority leader Abbas condemned the attack and demanded that Hamas free the kidnapped soldier. But that may be too little, too late. Israel said Monday it was preparing a military raid of Gaza to find the Palestinians behind the attacks, including members of Hamas.

The latest developments, warn German newspapers, bode poorly for the future of the peace process.

The left-leaning Süddeutsche Zeitung writes about the re-emergence of the Middle East's "vicious circle." Violence keeps coming back, "despite and because of Israel's withdrawal" from Gaza. The Palestinians don't want the path of the border to be dictated to them by Israel. They want a say in the matter. Israel, on the other hand, doesn't want to negotiate with terrorists who want to destroy the Jewish state. "It's a vicious circle," the paper writes. Now, Hamas, which governs the Palestinian Authority, is breaking its cease-fire and firing rockets at Israeli targets. For its part, the Israeli army is once again carrying out retaliatory actions. During the past 10 days alone, 14 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israel soldiers. This is all leading to what the paper describes as an atmosphere of "helplessness." The newest wave of violence, the paper concludes, "attests to the danger that unilateral steps entail. Israel may have gained short-term approval because they are not occupying the Gaza Strip anymore. But only a unanimous agreement between Israel and Palestine can deliver long-term peace."

"When Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya swapped his Kalashnikov for a suit," writes the Financial Times Deutschland, "it fuelled hopes of a transformation of the governing Hamas from a terrorist organization to a half tolerable and calculable Islamist party." But the latest attacks, the paper warns, should "bring optimists back down to reality: Israel is still dealing with the same military organization, one that is defined by its fight against the Jewish state." The military arm of Hamas seems to have a "life of its own," and rather than looking to Haniya, it looks to its radical exile leadership in Damascus (Syria) for its killing orders. Even as the Hamas politician negotiates with Abbas over the possibility of a deal that would lead to Hamas's recognition of Israel's right to exist, the militant arm of Hamas's Kassam Brigade is positioning its missiles to fire at Israel. "Of course Hamas also has moderate forces," it continues, "but a change in the entire organization might take years." Violence has been promoted as the only way to solve the problems for a very long time. "So the West needs to prepare for the fact that, for the time being, Hamas will not change radically. In order not to starve out the Palestinian population, one will have to live with bad compromises and thusly bridge the government period of the extremist organization."