Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Hamas Says Israel Will Pay Price After Palestinian Youth Found Dead
Palestinian youth in rebellion after a teenager was murdered on
July 2, 2014.
Wed Jul 2, 2014 4:43PM GMT
presstv.ir

The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, has warned that Israel will pay the price for “the abduction and murder of a Palestinian teenager” in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Hamas said Israel is fully accountable for the murder of the 18-year-old teenager, Yusuf Abu Zagher, early on Wednesday.

The group said the Palestinian people will not allow this crime and all the killings by Israeli settlers go unpunished.

A spokesman for President of the Palestinian National Unity Government Mahmoud Abbas has also blamed Israel for the murder of the teenage boy, calling on Tel Aviv to “find the killers.”

Zagher was found dead after being forced into a vehicle outside a supermarket in a region in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Israeli media sources close to the army said the body of the Palestinian teenager was found in a forest in Beit Hanina within hours. They said the Palestinian boy was apparently killed in a “revenge attack.”

Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that Israel take concrete steps to stop further attacks on Palestinians.

The incident happened a day after Israel buried three settlers, whose bodies had been found in a field near the village of Hilhul, north of the city of al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank. Tel Aviv claims the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, is responsible for the death of the three. Hamas rejects the allegation.

Israeli forces killed several Palestinians and arrested hundreds of others, including Hamas members and lawmakers, as part of the military operations that were purportedly carried out in search of the three settlers, who Israel claimed had gone missing on June 12.

Hamas had already denied involvement in the disappearance of the settlers and said Israel is trying to sabotage the recent reconciliation accord reached between the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah, which led to the formation of the Palestinian national unity government.


Arab teen kidnapped and killed in Jerusalem in suspected revenge attack

July 02, 2014 05:52
Rt.com

Israeli police are investigating the death of an Arab teenager, whose body was discovered in a forest near Jerusalem. He may have been kidnapped in a revenge attack after three Israeli teenagers were found dead after an apparent abduction.

The body of Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, 17, was charred and bore signs of violence. It was found hours after police were informed of a youth being forced into a car in a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem, according to Israeli media.

Israeli Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the youth was possibly kidnapped. Police later “discovered a body in the Jerusalem forest and were looking to see if there was a connection between the missing youth and the body that was found," he said as cited by Reuters.

Dozens of angry Arabs held a rally in in the neighborhood of Shuafat, where the alleged kidnapping happened, and clashed with Israeli security forces early Wednesday after the news of the killing broke. Many of them are convinced that the boy was abducted and killed in a revenge attack, a version reportedly being investigated by police.

It comes after radical Israelis held protests on Tuesday, blaming the government for not responding properly to the apparent kidnapping and killing of three Israeli youths, who were buried on Tuesday. The crowd was chanting slogans such as “Death to the Arabs” and “No Arabs, no terror attacks.” At least 47 of them were detained by the police.

Smaller incidents of anti-Arab violence were reported in Jerusalem on Tuesday as well, including an attempted attack of a masked man on an Arab McDonald’s patron.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the killing similarly how Abbas himself condemned the kidnapping of the Israeli youths.

A senior official for Abbas’ movement Fatah said the Israeli government must take responsibility for the crime.

"The Israeli government bears responsibility for Jewish terrorism and for the kidnapping and murder in occupied Jerusalem," the official, Dmitry Diliani, told Reuters.

The killing of the Palestinian teenager provoked condemnation from Israel's right-wing Housing Minister Uri Ariel.

"The murder of the Arab youth is despicable and shocking. I call on the police not to spare any effort and to apprehend the murderers as quickly as possible and to bring them to justice," Ariel said in a statement on Wednesday.

Israeli-Palestinian tension is running high in the wake of the kidnapping of three Israelis, who were found dead on Monday. Israel blamed the militant movement Hamas for the abductions and responded with mass door-to-door searches and arrest in the Palestinian territories. The crackdown sparked outraged and led to numerous clashes, with several Palestinians killed in various incidents over the two weeks.

Palestinian radicals intensified their attacks on Israel, with dozens of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The IDF responded to those with dozens of airstrikes at what it called Hamas sites in the Palestinian territories.


Israel hit with barrage of rockets from Gaza

i24news

Palestinians riot in Jerusalem after murder of Palestinian teen. police: motive for the murder not yet clear

As tensions remain high in Jerusalem following riots over the murder of a Palestinian teen, Israel also faced a barrage of rockets from Gaza on Wednesday evening.

The Israel Air Force targeted a site in Gaza from which four mortars were apparently launched on Wednesday evening. According to the IDF Spokesman unit, "a direct hit was confirmed."

Since midnight, Israel has been hit with at least a dozen rockets – and new reports of rockets landing continue to come in every hour. Israel's Iron Dome defense system intercepted one of the rockets fired at Ashkelon and another one over Sdot Negev Regional Council. Two rockets landed and exploded in the Sdot Negev Regional Council while another two exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council.

Israel's security cabinet is currently meeting to discuss potential actions against Gaza in light of the increased rocket fire.

In the past few days, rockets from Israel have hit cars and one factory in Sderot which subsequently caught on fire and burned to the ground.

The week started off with Israel on Monday finding the dead bodies of the three kidnapped teenagers, for which security forces had been searching for weeks. Their burial on Tuesday was followed by demonstrations in Jerusalem calling for "death to Arabs" and "revenge" for the murders.

Early Wednesday morning, the body of a Palestinian teenager was found in the Jerusalem Forest, following reports of a possible kidnapping.

Mohammed Hussein Abu Khdair, 16, was a resident of East Jerusalem.

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered by Khdair's home later in the day on Wednesday and clashed with security forces, throwing stones and calling to avenge the murder.

Despite an assumption that the murder of the Palestinian was carried out by a Jew in revenge for the murder of the three Israeli teens, Israel's Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovitz insists that the motive is not yet clear.

Aharonovitz said on Wednesday evening that police were investigating all possible angles of the murder of the Palestinian teen. He also announced that an increased security presence has been set up throughout the country because of the circumstances of the past few days.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told i24news earlier on Wednesday that police had received a call in the early morning hours of a teenager being forced into a car in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.

Roadblocks were later set up. About an hour and a half later police got a call that a body had been found in the Jerusalem Forest. "We are pursuing all avenues - both nationalistic motivations and criminal ones," he said.

Security officials blocked the entrances of Beit Hannina, after hundreds assembled by the home of the Palestinian teen. The riots spread during the day to the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, where the demonstrators threw stones and two pipe bombs at the police.

The Temple Mount was also closed off to prevent rioting by Muslim worshipers. Several were reported injured in the Shuafat neighborhood.

Security forces are also apparently examining the possibility the boy was killed as part of a domestic issue or "honor killing," as well as previous attempts to carry out an abduction against the murdered boy's family.

Israeli media is describing the Palestinians' death as a "revenge killing," as the events follow Tuesday's burial of three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and killed by Hamas operatives on June 12.

Hamas warned that Israel would pay for the kidnap and murder of the Palestinian teenager. "We send our message to the Zionist entity and its leaders, which hold direct responsibility (for the murder), that our people will not let this crime pass, nor all the killings and destruction by your settlers," the Islamist movement said.

"You will pay the price for these crimes."

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of being responsible for the teen's death, demanding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issue an apology just as Abbas had done for the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens.

Rudeineh also called the incident a "war crime" carried out "in cold blood by Israeli settlers."

Netanyahu meanwhile called "on all parties not to take the law into their own hands" and said an investigation into the murder was under way.

Netanyahu also asked Aharonovitch to "act as quickly as possible to find out who is behind the heinous murder."

In a statement issued by the Jerusalem municipality Wednesday morning, Mayor Nir Barkat condemned the "horrible and barbaric" murder.

The United States on Wednesday condemned the killing of the Palestinian youth, warning acts of vengeance would worsen an explosive situation.

"There are no words to convey adequately our condolences to the Palestinian people," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

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