Abbas: Netanyahu must condemn boy's death like we condemned kidnapping
Netanyahu calls murder 'despicable' as security minister says possible connection exists between body found and reported kidnapping of Palestinian; Fatah: Israeli government bears responsibility for Jewish terrorism
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the murder and suspected kidnapping of a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem Wednesday, just as Abbas himself had done for the three young Israelis who went missing in June but were discovered murdered in a West Bank valley on Monday.
"I ask Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the kidnapping and murder … as we condemned those of the three Israelis," Abbas said in a statement. He also called on Israel to "take concrete measures to stop settler attacks and the chaos resulting from these attacks. "
The possibility that the teen's murder was part of a revenge attack for the death of the three Israeli teens was also being investigated. Earlier Wednesday, two 'price tag' attacks were reported, with a livestock pen being set ablaze and the words "Price tag blood vengeance" being scrawled in a Palestinian village near Nablus, and "Death to Arabs" tagged on an Arab owned restaurant.
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Netnayahu spoke with Interior Security Ministry Itzhak Aharonovich and urged him and the police to work quickly to find those behind what he called a "despicable murder."
In a statement, the prime minister "called on all sides not to take the law into their own hands and noted that Israel is a nation of laws and everyone must act according to the law."
News of the boy's death caused massive protests in Shuafat, with Palestinians throwing rocks and fire bombs at the police.
The teen's death could be connected to reports of a Palestinian teen who was reportedly forced into a car in Jerusalem's Shuafat neighborhood late Tuesday night, and the possibility that his murder was a revenge attack for the murder Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel was also raised by a security official who spoke with Reuters.
Aharonovich said there could be a connected between the boys murder and reports of a Palestinian teen who was reportedly forced into a car in Jerusalem's Shuafat neighborhood, but would go no further.
"We fear a suspected kidnapping, we know about the boy who was probably kidnapped and we be also think there is a connection to the body. These things are now being investigated," he said.
A senior official from Abbas's Fatah movement told Reuters the missing teenager's family had identified the corpse as their son. The family was not immediately available for comment.
"The Israeli government bears responsibility for Jewish terrorism and for the kidnapping and murder in occupied Jerusalem," the Fatah official, Dmitry Diliani, said.
The family of Naftali Frenkel also decried the death of the Arab teen and said that "If the Arab youth was murdered because of nationalistic motives then this is a horrible and horrendous act.
"There is no difference between (Arab) blood and (Jewish) blood. Murder is murder. There is no forgiveness or justification for any murder," said Yisahi Frenkel, Naftali's uncle. Similar claims were sounded by Israeli politicians.
AFP, Moran Azulay and Noam (Dabul) Dvir contributed to this report
