Israel has arrested six Jewish suspects in the abduction and killing of a Palestinian teenager whose death sparked violent protests in Jerusalem and Israeli Arab towns, a security source said on Sunday, Reuters reported.
Tensions were also high along the Gaza border where Israel killed two Palestinian militants and wounded a third in one of about a dozen air strikes in response to rocket fire at southern Israeli towns, according to Reuters. Hospital officials confirmed the fatalities, and the Israeli military confirmed it had bombed central Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled that broader Israeli action was not imminent, Reuters reported.
The burning-alive of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair, and the earlier killings of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers, have driven relations between Palestinians and Israelis to their lowest point since U.S.-backed peace talks broke down in April, according to Reuters.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a gag order had been imposed on most details of the case, commenting only that police had arrested a number of Jewish people suspected of carrying out the killing, Reuters reported.
Despite the gag order, Israeli media said a court had ordered the suspects remanded into custody for eight days, according to Reuters. Police declined to comment. Israel's Channel 2 television said the suspects were far-right extremists, among them minors, from the Jerusalem area and a nearby Jewish settlement.
Abu Khudair's burnt body was discovered in a Jerusalem forest on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Palestinians believe he was the victim of far-right Jews avenging the kidnap-killing of the three Israeli teenagers who disappeared while hitchhiking in the occupied West Bank on June 12, and whose bodies were found on June 30.
Israel blames the deaths of the teenagers on the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, according to Reuters.
