RAMALLAH: A Palestinian teenager whose abduction and murder set off violent protests was burned alive, according to initial autopsy reports, as clashes over the incident spread on Saturday from east Jerusalem to Arab Israeli towns.
Mohammed Abu Khder, 16, was abducted from his Shuafat neighbourhood in occupied east Jerusalem early on Wednesday and his charred body was found not long afterwards in a west Jerusalem forest.
Palestinians said it was the deed of Jewish extremists in revenge for the kidnapping and murder in the West Bank last month of three Israeli teenagers.
Palestinian news agency Maan quoted Attorney General Mohammed Aluweiwi on Saturday as saying the initial findings of a post-mortem indicated the presence of smoke in the boy’s lungs, meaning he was still alive while he was being burned.
Abu Khder also suffered a head wound, but that did not cause his death, Aluweiwi added.
Israeli police said on Saturday they still could not confirm the motive for Abu Khder’s murder.
A spokeswoman said police were investigating “all possibilities”, and that there was a gag order on all details of the investigation.
The teenager’s funeral on Friday, joined by thousands of mourners, was accompanied by clashes across Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem, the third straight day of violence since the discovery of his body.
Disturbances spread to the Arab towns of Taibe in north-eastern Israel and Jaljulia and Qalansuwa in the centre where one car was torched after its Jewish owner was pulled out of it, police said. More than a dozen Arab Israelis were arrested, they added.
Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2014
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