Six Israelis Arrested for Suspected Murder of Palestinian Teen
Following the death of a Palestinian teenager last week in a suspected revenge attack, Israeli authorities have arrested six people in connection with the attack.
The development comes as dawn broke on a new week in the troubled Levant, which is coming off one of its worst run of days in recent memory. It started on Monday when the bodies of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers were discovered in a makeshift grave in the West Bank ending a frantic 18-day search.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who blamed Hamas for the kidnapping and murders, vowed to take action and began a campaign to strike suspected terrorist targets in Gaza. On Wednesday morning, the body of Muhammed Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was recovered in a Jerusalem forest after he was reportedly burned alive.
In the days that followed, riots broke out as Palestinians and Israeli forces clashed in parts of Israel and the West Bank, which were coupled by reports of Jewish and Palestinian mobs in Jerusalem attacking civilians and rocket fire from Gaza resuming on towns in southern Israel.
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Whether the arrest of the six Israelis, described by an official to AFP as members of an "extremist Jewish group," will bring some stability to the increasingly volatile situation remains to be seen. (As many as nine rockets have reportedly been fired into Israel from Gaza this morning.)
Meanwhile, as Israel pursues the killers of its murdered teenagers, many Palestinians have expressed doubt that Israel will bring the suspects in the murder of Abu Khdeir to justice. Following news of the arrests, Abu Khdeir's mother told a reporter:
I don’t have any peace in my heart. Even if they captured who they say killed my son. They’re only going to ask them questions and then release them. What’s the point?”
And yes, if you missed it, the suspects arrested for murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir are Jews, motive thought to be nationalist #Israel #Jpost
— Ben Hartman (@Benhartman) July 6, 2014
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/07/six-israelis-arrested-for-suspected-revenge-attack-on-palestinian-teen/373981/
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