Palestinians and Israeli security forces exchanged firebombs and rubber bullets in Jerusalem street battles Wednesday after the murder of an Arab teenager — possibly an act of “revenge” for the kidnaping and killing of three Jewish Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.
The burned body of 17-year-old Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, who lived in the Palestinian neighborhood of Shuafat in east Jerusalem, was found in a forest west of the city early Wednesday.
The teen’s family believes it was motivated by revenge.
“It’s a clear crime by settlers in revenge for the killing of the three,” said his cousin, Saed Abu Khdeir, according to The Associated Press.
Israeli police say they are still determining the motivations.
“We are investigating whether it was nationalistically motivated or criminal right now,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the Jerusalem Post.
The gruesome discovery came just an hour after residents of an upscale Arab neighborhood told police they had seen a young man being forced into a vehicle late Tuesday night, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The teenager’s cousin, Naima, said Khdeir was on his way to a nearby mosque for morning prayers with friends when it happened, Reuters reported.
“Somebody ran into the house to say one of the boys had been dragged into a white van, so [Muhammad’s] mother called the police,” the cousin said.
At midafternoon, masked men holed up in a mosque in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina lobbed rocks toward Israeli security forces in the street below. Police responded by firing stun grenades toward the mosque, as a small group of Palestinian youths stood to the side.
As news of the murder made its way around the city on Wednesday, hundreds of Arabs took to the streets of East Jerusalem to riot, throwing firebombs and stones at Israeli police and soldiers. Israeli police fired back with tear gas and stun grenades.
On Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Israel “mete out the strongest punishment against the murderers if it truly wants peace.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged authorities to investigate the “reprehensible murder” while encouraging Jerusalem residents “not to take the law into their own hands.”
Secretary of State John Kerry called the murder “despicable.”
Khdeir’s murder comes just a day after tens of thousands attended a funeral for the three slain Israeli teenagers who were abducted in the West Bank.
As the teens were buried, hundreds of Israeli protestors took to the streets, some shouting “Death to Arabs.”