JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities have arrested a
number of Jewish suspects in the killing of a Palestinian teenager whose
death set off days of violent protests in Arab areas of Jerusalem and
northern Israel, an official said Sunday.
Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16,
was abducted last week and his charred body found a short while later
in a Jerusalem forest in what Palestinians say was a revenge killing for
the earlier deaths of three Israeli teens.
Police have been
investigating various avenues in the teen’s death, including criminal or
personal motives. But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity
because the investigation was continuing, said authorities believe the
killing was "nationalistic" in nature. The Haaretz daily said six
suspects were in custody.
Palestinians have alleged that Abu
Khdeir was killed by Jewish extremists to avenge the killings of the
three Israeli teenagers, who were abducted in the West Bank on June 12.
Their bodies were found last week, and Abu Khdeir was killed just hours
after their funeral.
In east Jerusalem, home to the most violent
protests over the teen’s death, Abu Khdeir’s family said news of the
arrests brought them little joy.
"I don’t have any peace in my
heart, even if they captured who they say killed my son," said his
mother Suha. "They’re only going to ask them questions and then release
them. What’s the point?"
"They need to treat them the way they
treat us. They need to demolish their homes and round them up, the way
they do it to our children," she added.
His father, Hussein, said
the family still had not been officially informed of any arrests.
"Even
if they rounded up all of Israel, they will not bring my son back," he
said.
Adding to the tensions, Palestinian militants in the Gaza
Strip have stepped up rocket attacks on southern Israel, drawing Israeli
airstrikes in retaliation. At midday Sunday, militants fired nine more
rockets into Israel, the military said. Overnight, Israel had carried
out airstrikes on 10 sites in Gaza.
President Shimon Peres said
Sunday that Israel would get to the bottom of Abu Khdeir’s killing and
bring whoever is responsible to justice.
"If Jews are becoming
killers, they will be put to court like any killer," he told a gathering
of foreign journalists in the southern town Sderot, where he was
meeting with local residents enduring the ongoing rocket barrages from
neighboring Gaza. "Whoever was killed for us was murdered, for us is a
victim."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel
would act calmly and responsibly in the face of rising
Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.
"Experience proves that in
moments like these, one must act calmly and responsibly, not
hysterically and hastily," Netanyahu said at the opening of his weekly
Cabinet meeting.
His statement came after weekend clashes between
Israeli police and demonstrators in Jerusalem and Arab towns in northern
Israel following Abu Khdeir’s death. On Sunday, Tariq Abu Khdeir, a
15-year-old Palestinian American who was badly injured in clashes with
Israeli police, was sentenced to nine days of home detention.
His
parents say Tariq Abu Khdeir, who goes to school in Florida, was beaten
Thursday by Israeli police during clashes over the killing of Mohammed
Abu Khdeir. The two youths were cousins.
As the youth returned to
his family Sunday, he was crying and appeared badly bruised, with both
eyes and his mouth swollen. "I feel better, I am excited to be back
home," he said.
Amateur video of what Tariq’s father Salah said
was the beating aired on a local television station, and he said he
could recognize his son from his clothing.
The U.S. State
Department said it was "profoundly troubled" by reports of his beating
and demanded an investigation. Israel’s Justice Ministry quickly
launched a formal investigation.
In the West Bank, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said he had sent a letter to U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seeking an "international investigative
committee" into the latest violence, including Abu Khdeir’s death. He
accused "criminal settler groups" of being behind the violence and said
Israel should outlaw them.
Protests spread over the weekend from
Jerusalem to Arab towns in northern Israel, with hundreds of people
throwing rocks and fire bombs at officers who responded with tear gas
and stun grenades, according to Israeli police. Police said 22 Arab
Israelis were arrested in clashes on Saturday.
Israeli Arabs,
unlike Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hold citizenship
rights. But they often face discrimination and many identify with the
Palestinians. Even so, violent riots like those that occurred on
Saturday are rare.
Clashes mostly subsided by early Sunday, but
the situation remained tense. Police said a Jewish woman was attacked
and lightly wounded early Sunday by a group of Palestinians in
Jerusalem’s Old City. Her husband fired his weapon and the attackers
fled, and police were searching for them, police said.
In the West
Bank, the army arrested a Palestinian in the city of Hebron. His family
identified him as Hossam Dufesh. The army would not elaborate on the
arrest, but Israeli forces have concentrated its search for the killers
of three Israeli teens in the Hebron area.
Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir
Barkat condemned the recent violence and said all extremism must be
stopped. "We have to fight the extremists who try to destabilize our
life and we will do that and return the city back to normal life the way
it was a few weeks ago as soon as possible," he said in an interview.
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Associated Press journalist Yousur Alhlou contributed to this report.
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