Jewish extremists held over Palestinian teen’s murder

Israeli police have arrested a group of Jewish extremists in connection with the kidnap and murder of a Palestinian teenager who was burned to death in a suspected revenge killing.

The brutal killing on 2 July has triggered four days of violent clashes which began in east Jerusalem and have since spread to more than half a dozen Arab towns in Israel, with hordes of angry protesters hurling stones at Israeli riot police.

‘Apparently the people arrested in relation to the case belong to an extremist Jewish group,’ an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The website of Haaretz newspaper said six people had been arrested, but details of the case have been subjected to a strict gag order. Earlier, police acknowledged for the first time ‘indications that the background to the killing was nationalistic’. It followed days of growing suspicion that Wednesday’s murder was carried out by extremist Jews in revenge for last month’s abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank.

But Israel appeared bent on containing the situation, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging his cabinet to keep a cool head over how to handle growing tensions in and around Gaza. Overnight, Israel police arrested 35 people as violent protests over the teenager’s murder swept more than half a dozen Arab Israeli towns.

The violence exploded as a top Palestinian legal official confirmed that initial findings from the post mortem showed there was smoke in the lungs of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khder, indicating he was still alive when he was set on fire.

Until Sunday, police said they were unsure of the motive for the killing, contributing to the rising tensions.

‘Around 35 people were arrested overnight, almost half of them minors,’ police spokeswoman Luba Samri said after violence raged into the early hours of Sunday.