Police arrest 6 Jewish suspects in murder of Arab teen

The Shin Bet security agency and the Israel Police arrested six suspects early Sunday in the kidnapping and brutal murder of a 16-year-old Arab boy from east Jerusalem last week.

Muhammad Abu Khdeir was abducted from his home neighborhood of Shuafat on Tuesday night, and his charred body was discovered in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning. According to Palestinian officials, the autopsy revealed that he had been burned alive.

The police arrested six Jews suspected of killing the boy as an act of revenge for the murder of three Jewish teens – Gil-ad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrach -- at the hands of Hamas terrorists. Abu Khdeir was killed one day after the three were laid to rest.

The six suspects are residents of Adam, Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, and three of them are minors.

In coordination with special police units, the Shin Bet raided the suspects' homes early Sunday, and took them in for questioning. The suspects are aged 16 to 22.

The break in the case came when one of the suspects confessed and implicated the other five. Subsequently, several of the suspects confessed as well. After confessing, some of the suspects were brought to the scene of the crime to re-enact the event before investigators. Now the Shin Bet is working on getting confessions from the remaining suspects.

Sources said additional arrests are expected in the coming days.

The Shin Bet has kept the suspects from meeting with lawyers or with representatives of Honenu, a Zionist legal aid organization that defends rightists, which volunteered to represent them.

The arrests followed an intensive investigation that relied on footage taken from the security cameras at the site of the abduction. The suspects belong to an extreme right-wing cell, with no uniform religious character. The unifying factor in the group is only intense hatred toward Arabs and a desire for revenge.

The kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teens last month followed by the murder of the Palestinian teen have driven relations between Palestinians and Israelis to their lowest point since U.S.-backed peace talks broke down in April.

Riots erupted in east Jerusalem on Wednesday following the discovery of the body, spreading to Israeli Arab towns in central Israel. Six days later, the riots have yet to subside.

Failed abduction attempt

The night before the abduction and murder of Abu Khdeir, a 9-year-old boy was grabbed in the same neighborhood. Police suspect that an abduction was attempted by the same group. However, according to the boy's mother, she hit the would-be abductors with her cellphone and they fled.

The police say no complaint was initially filed, so the incident was not investigated. Residents of Shuafat, however, say that they did file a complaint, and even offered assistance, but the police did not take them seriously.

"When the report came in, a police officer immediately arrived at the scene and met with the boy and his mother. While the officer was questioning the mother, her husband came and calmed the police officer, telling him that the culprit was Arab, without giving any further details," a police statement said.

"He asked to take care of his wife and son before coming to the police station to give a detailed testimony, even though the officer begged him to give the full account of the events for the sake of the investigation and the apprehension of the suspect. The officer allowed the father to take care of his family and agreed to collect his testimony at the station the following day.

"It was only two days later, the day after Muhammad Abu Khdeir was abducted, that the father came in to give his testimony. It is important to note that the police acted quickly in response to the event and made every effort to reach the father, who, as aforementioned, only arrived two days later. Despite his initial account, a link between the two incidents is in fact under investigation."

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