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Palestinian teen abducted, killed in Jerusalem

Al-Akhbar | July 2, 2014

A Palestinian teenager from occupied east Jerusalem was kidnapped and killed early Wednesday, hours after Israelis rampaged through the city calling for Arabs to die in “revenge” for the deaths of three settlers by unknown assailants.

The killing of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat sparked a wave of clashes in east Jerusalem where hundreds of angry young Palestinians demonstrated.

Police fired rubber bullets and sound grenades at the demonstrators, injuring at least 12 people including a reporter and photographer, local news agency Ma’an said.

Quoting witnesses, army radio said the boy was seen being forced into a car in the city. Ma’an cited witnesses who said the car involved in the kidnapping was a Hyundai with three settlers inside.

A burned body was found shortly afterwards in another part of the city, the radio said, describing it as a “suspected revenge attack” for the kidnapping of three Israeli settlers from the southern West Bank on June 12.

Israel’s Ynet web site said the body, discovered in a forest in the area of Deir Yassin, was charred and showed signs of violence.

Ma’an also reported that the body had been burned.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday demanded Israel condemn the kidnapping and suspected murder.

“The president of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemn the kidnapping and murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khudair as we condemned the kidnapping of the three Israelis,” a presidential statement said.

A cousin of the missing youth who gave his name only as Mahmoud, said locals had tried to chase the car involved in the abduction immediately after the suspected settlers abducted the boy, but were unable to catch the fleeing car.

“They chased him in two cars through the village. The cars drove fast but they didn’t manage to reach them,” he told army radio.

Residents had filed a police complaint in recent days that someone in the same car had tried unsuccessfully to snatch a seven-year-old child.

Shortly after the kidnapping was reported, a body was found in a forest near Givat Shaul in west Jerusalem, the radio said, indicating it had been burned. It had earlier said there were signs of stab wounds.

Several hours after three Israeli settlers found dead Monday were buried on Tuesday, hundreds of Israelis rampaged through Jerusalem, stopping cars and the light rail and shouting “Death to Arabs,” police and witnesses said. Police said 47 people were arrested.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri confirmed they were investigating reports of a kidnapping and said they had found a body but refused to say whether the two incidents were connected. She did not give details on the victim’s identity.

“In the early hours of Wednesday morning, police received a report of a person being forced into a car in Beit Hanina,” Samri told AFP, referring to a well-heeled east Jerusalem neighborhood.

“Within an hour, a body was found in Jerusalem that has still not been identified. We are looking to see if there is a connection between the two incidents.”

Quoting witnesses, army radio said a black car had stopped next to a youth who was hitchhiking and he was forced inside. The car then took off.

Some time later, the family of the youth, who is understood to be around 16, reported him missing, it said.

The body was discovered in a forest in Givat Shaul in southwest Jerusalem. An AFP correspondent said police had sealed off a large area around the neighborhood.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, urged police to “to swiftly investigate who was behind the loathsome murder and its motive.” He called on all sides “not to take the law into their own hands.”

Tensions were also high in the West Bank, where around 40 Palestinians were arrested in raids on Tuesday, the latest in a campaign by Israel to cripple Hamas there.

Four people were wounded by live bullets early on Wednesday in an Israeli raid in the Palestinian city of Jenin.

Near Hebron, Israeli forces destroyed the home of a Palestinian arrested on charges of shooting dead an off-duty police officer in the West Bank in April.

(AFP, Reuters, Al-Akhbar)

July 2, 2014 - Posted by aletho | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | Israeli settlement, Jerusalem, Palestine, Zionism