Three Israelis have confessed to killing 16-year-old Mohamed Abu Khudeir on Monday.
An Israeli official said the suspects were re-enacting the murder for authorities, according to Reuters news agency.
Abu Khudeir was kidnapped and murdered last week in an apparent revenge attack following the discovery of the bodies of three Israeli teenagers, Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha’er. Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported earlier this week that Abu Khudeir was burnt alive, citing Palestinian Attorney General Muhammad Abd al-Ghani Uweili.
The Israeli teenagers bodies were found last Monday after an 18 day search. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly blamed Hamas for the kidnapping and murder of the boys.
Away from the investigations into the four murders, tensions have increased between Gaza and Israel seeing an intensification of the exchange of rocket fire and airstrikes.
Egypt’s foreign ministry condemned the latest Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip that Hamas claims killed seven of its members on Sunday night.
The ministry spokesman reiterated on Monday “Egypt’s total rejection and condemnation of all acts of violence that leads to the loss of civilian lives on both sides”. The ministry called for Israel to show “restraint” and to “stop the policy of revenge and collective punishment”, warning that “continued deterioration of the status quo carries the risk of slipping into a vicious cycle”.
Hamas has vowed revenge for the deaths of its members killed in an airstrike on a tunnel, according to the Associated Press.
The IDF claim more than 150 rockets have been fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of “Operation Brothers Keeper”, which saw mass arrests of Palestinians in the search for the kidnapped Israeli teenagers.
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) says airstrikes are aimed at “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip and are in retaliation to the rockets fired into Israeli territory.
Netanyahu called Abu Khudeir’s father, Hussein Abu Khudeir, on Monday according to a statement from his office. “I would like to express my outrage and that of the citizens of Israel over the reprehensible murder of your son,” Netanyahu told the murdered boy’s father. The Prime Minister promised him that the perpetrators “will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law”.
Palestinian-American Tarek Abu Khudeir, Abu Khudeir’s 15-year-old cousin, was released on bail on Sunday having been detained since Friday. A video thought to capture the moment of Tarek Abu Khudeir’s arrest shows him being beaten by Israel security personnel.
