By Ruth Eglash and Griff Witte,
JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities have arrested six Jewish suspects in the slaying of an Arab teenager from East Jerusalem, Israeli officials said Sunday.
The officials said the suspects had “nationalistic” motives, adding to speculation 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khieder was killed in a revenge attack following the abduction and slaying of three Israeli teens last month.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity, and they would not provide additional information about the suspects, citing a legal order barring them from commenting publicly on details of the investigation.
A statement released by Israel’s domestic security agency late Sunday afternoon confirmed the arrests and said the suspects were being held for questioning.
A spokesman for Honenu, a legal aid group that defends Israelis accused of extremist crimes, said it was representing the six at a court hearing Sunday afternoon in the Israeli city of Petah Tikva.
The kidnapping and slaying of Khieder on Wednesday has sparked violent clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem and northern Israel amid fears of a new intifada, or mass uprising, against the Israeli occupation.
Israeli officials had been facing criticism from Palestinians for allegedly not moving aggressively enough to solve the case. Israeli authorities had earlier speculated that the teen may have been killed because of a family dispute.
Before news of the arrests broke on Sunday, Jerusalem’s mayor expressed confidence that the killers would be brought to justice. “I’m 100 percent sure that police will crack this case,” said the mayor, Nir Barkat, in an interview.
Arrests in the case could help ease tensions, which were stoked anew Saturday by reports that an autopsy showed Khieder had been burned alive.
Palestinians were also angered by the emergence of a video apparently showing plain-clothes Israeli security officers pummeling one of Khieder’s cousins, who is a high school student from Florida. Still images showed Tariq Abu Khieder’s face bruised and bloodied.
Tariq Abu Khieder, 15, was sentenced by an Israeli court Sunday to nine days of house arrest after Israeli officials accused him of being among a group of Palestinians who attacked police officers.
The U.S. State Department late Saturday released a statement expressing concern about the case and calling for an investigation, which Israel’s Justice Ministry on Sunday said it had launched.
“We are profoundly troubled by reports that he was severely beaten while in police custody and strongly condemn any excessive use of force,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
As tensions simmered in Jerusalem on Sunday, exchanges of rocket and missile fire continued in and around the Gaza Strip. The army said it had carried out missile strikes on 10 sites in Gaza early Sunday, following a barrage of rocket and mortar fire into southern Israel by Palestinians militants Saturday. The army said nine more rockets had been fired from Gaza on Sunday.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled there would be no sharp escalation from the Israeli side.
“Experience proves that in moments like these, one must act calmly and responsibly, not hysterically and hastily,” he said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting.
Witte reported from London.
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